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THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES 
OF EDUCATION 



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THE 

PSYCHOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES 

OF EDUCATION 

A Study in the Science of Education 



BY 



HERMAN HARRELL HORNE, Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN DARTMOUTH COLLEGE 
AUTHOR OF "THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION" 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO.. LTD. 
1906 

All rights reserved 



H^ 



IfBRARY or CONGRESS 

Two Conie:- Rece'vecf 

JUL 25 t906 

A Co^yrifTi'i Cr.tcy 
COPY B, 



Copyright, 1906, 
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1906. 



J. S. CusWng & Co, — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mas8., U.S.A. 



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WHOM SHOULD THIS VOLUME 
SEEK TO HONOR BUT THE 
FATHER AND MOTHER WHO 
MADE POSSIBLE BOTH MY EDU- 
CATION AND MY PSYCHOLOGY? 



PREFACE 

Progress in every art dates from the application of 
science. Chemistry widens industry, physics perfects 
means of communication, bacteriology advances medi- 
cine, sociology humanizes jurisprudence, economics 
elevates business, scholarship revivifies Bibhcal truth. 
The old professions of law, theology, and medicine 
grounded themselves in science during the mediaeval 
period. Business and teaching, though arts as old as 
man, have not yet struck into the sure path of science. 
There are many indications, however, that these arts 
also are now in the act of transition from the em- 
pirical to the scientific. The period of transition has 
already lasted a generation ; it is Hkely to last several 
more. 

This volume attempts to lay scientific foundations 
for the art of teaching, so far as those foundations are 
concerned with psychology. Though the art of educa- 
tion is founded in all the sciences of man, probably no 
science has quite so much to contribute as psychology. 
The wonderful progress in all departments of psy- 
chology during recent years makes an outHne map of 
consciousness now possible. The same progress makes 
educational applications in order; for, as Professor 
Titchener says, ''No sane man can doubt that there is 

vii 



viii Preface 

a relation between the science of mind and the art of 
teaching.'* 

The author has attempted to be the middle man 
between the psychologist and the teacher, taking the 
theoretical descriptions of pure psychology and trans- 
forming them into educational principles for the teacher. 
The psychologist as such cannot be asked for practical 
appHcations, nor must the teacher be burdened with 
technical and unapphed psychology. The book will 
satisfy neither readers of pure psychology nor lovers of 
teaching devices; it seeks to satisfy teachers who love 
the principles of their art. 

There is a certain peril in attempting the practical 
in the matter of educational principles. The vision 
must not fail, lest the old-time rule of thumb, rote, 
and insipidity be again enthroned. Nor must the ap- 
pHcation fail, lest the vagueness of abstract theory 
both confuse and weary. Is it possible to say practical 
things to the busy and devoted host of American 
teachers that shall be at once inspiriting and non- 
mechanical, avoiding each horn of the dilemma of 
unusable theory and useless platitudes ? Let this book 
be my trial answer, to the pubHcation of which I am 
encouraged by the many teachers, in various places, 
who have heard its contents in lecture form. 

The outline of the discussion is evident from a glance 
at the table of contents. In Part I we get our bearings 
in the field of the science of education. The remainder 
of the book sketches such a science from the standpoint 
of psychology. Its parts are suggested by the nature 
of man, the subject of education. Psychologically 



Preface ix 

viewed, man is body and soul. The phases of the souPs 
life, according to distinctions wrought now into common 
usage and adopted here for this reason, are knowledge, 
feehng, and will. At the same time psychology finds 
in the soul no reUgious section, just because the whole 
soul is conscious of its relationship to deity. In view 
of the nature of man, complete education, psycho- 
logically viewed, is therefore physical, intellectual, 
emotional, moral, and spiritual. These give the divi- 
sions of the book. Only the discussion of physical 
education is omitted, as the reader who is interested 
in doing so can find my views on this subject elsewhere.^ 
At this point I may remark, by the way, concerning the 
relationship of my two books to each other that, whereas 
the first was mostly theory with some practice, this is 
mostly practice with some theory. 

A few characteristic things about the mode of treat- 
ment may here be noted. Perhaps for the first time in 
the many similar works in this general field, the educa- 
tion of the emotions is permitted to stand on a noticeable 
parity with intellectual and moral education, in accord 
with the theory of the former volume. Also, the educa- 
tion of the emotions and the will is treated with greater 
analysis than customary, but no greater than their 
complexity deserves. Also, I have attempted to em- 
phasize practically the idea of the unity of education 
by concluding the work with a discussion of religious 
education. This is not a new type of education but 
just education conscious of its true end, as the teacher 
whose fife is right spirituahzes education into religion. 

^ The Philosophy of Education, ch. III. 



X Preface 

At the same time the reader will observe my effort not 
to mix the educational and religious issues in the 
American pubUc school situation. 

For convenience of reference the chapters are num- 
bered continuously, despite the division of the book 
into parts. The special problems and bibliography at 
the end of each chapter are intended to serve the teacher 
of the subject, and also to provoke the reader to further 
study and reflection upon v^hat is perhaps one of the 
gravest and greatest human problems. 

If this volume helps to point the way to a science of 
educating, or to make the task of any fellow-teacher 
somewhat lighter and sweeter, the author has his re- 
ward. 

Hanover, New Hampshire, 
May 26, 1906. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
INTRODUCTION: A SCIENCE OF EDUCATION 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Concept of a Science of Education . 3 
II. The Relation of the History to the Science 

OF Education 23 

III. The Problem of Education . . . .31 

IV. The Essential Qualifications of the Teacher 42 
V. The Contribution of Psychology to a Sci- 
ence of Education 55 

*«»VI. The Theory of Formal Discipline . . 66 

PART II 

INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION, OR EDUCAT- 
ING THE MIND TO KNOW 

VII. Opening the Windows of Consciousness . 85 

VIII. Educating the Mind to Perceive ... 97 

IX. The Educational Uses of the Apperceptive 

Process . . . . . . . .107 

X. Aiding Memory 117 

XI. Educating the Imagination . . . .140 

XII. Stimulating the Mind to Conceive . . 155 

XIII. Training the Mind to Judge . . . .165 

XIV. Teaching to Reason . . . . . .177 

xi 



xu 



Contents 



PART III 

EMOTIONAL EDUCATION, OR EDUCATING 
THE MIND TO FEEL 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XV. Description of the Feelings . . -195 
XVI. Principles of Educating the Feelings . 208 
XVII. The Place of Pleasure and Pain in Edu- 
cation 215 

XVIII. Controlling the Coarser Emotions . . 220 

XIX. Developing the Altruistic Feelings . 227 

^/ XX. ^Esthetic Education 239 

PART IV 

MORAL EDUCATION, OR EDUCATING THE 
MIND TO WILL 

XXI. The Field of Will 261 

XXII. The Use of Instincts in Educating . . 266 

XXIII. Training the Impulses .... 270 

XXIV. The Place of Imitation in Education . 278 
XXV. Educating by Suggestion .... 284 

XXVI. Forming Habits 292 

XX VI I. Deliberating and Choosing . . . 306 

XXVIII. Securing Attention 313 



PART V 

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION, OR EDUCATING 
THE SPIRIT IN MAN 

XXIX. The Principles of Religious Education . 335 
XXX. The Development and Training of the 

Religious Nature 349 



Contents 



xni 



CHAPTER 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 

XXXIII. 

XXXIV. 



Religious Education in the Home . 
Religious Education in the Public School 
Religious Education in the Church 
The Text-book of Religious Education . 



PAGE 

397 
411 



I 



CHAPTER I 

THE CONCEPT OF A SCIENCE OF EDUCATION^ 

Is there a science of educating? 

In considering this subject, upon which such a variety 
of mod-rn opinion has been expressed, let us begin with 
V ii. dc- of the terms involved. 



f V y ''cience'' we may agree to mean classified and Meaning of 
V^Y\Jyfli'n3.hh ^:nc vvJedge. The root meaning of the word 
T sii. gests Imowledge. But not all knowledge is 
Inly the knowledge whose details appear in 



I 



L vely organized whole, into which some order 

a mtroduced by classification, deserves to be 

^ientific. The knowledge of the usual, untrained 

lis of being scientific at this point of system. 

^her, also, the knowledge that is truly scientific 

lable; it is capable of demonstration by other 

^^ "* V A other efficient observers. The an- 

a new discovery, Hke the appearance of 

V planet Mars, becomes truly scientific 

n ; y capable astronomer can verify it. 

hernistry, botany, biology, logic, aesthetics, 

--., are called sciences, for example, because they 

ified and verifiable bodies of knowledge. The 

■iscussion is a revision of a paper on the same subject read 
orld's Congress of Arts and Sciences in St. Louis, September, 



4 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Descriptive 
and 

Normative 
Science. 



Meaning of 
" Educating." 



nether and the upper boundaries of science are both 
vague, it is true, — there being no clear line of cleav- 
age where unscientific knowledge ends and scientific 
knowledge begins, or where scientific knowledge ends 
and speculative hypotheses begin. 

So . far it is evident that if educating is capable of 
reduction to a scientific basis, there must be had con- 
cerning it a body of systematized and demonstrable 
knowledge. 

To assist us further in thinking of what a science is, 
the logicians and philosophers who have sought to 
classify the various sciences distinguish two kinds, 
viz. the descriptive and explanatory, and the norma- 
tive. The so-called descriptive sciences tell us what the 
fact is and what are its causes. The normative sciences 
tell us what the fact ought to be; i.e. they establish 
norms or standards of experience. Physics, history, 
and psychology would illustrate the descriptive sciences, 
while logic, aesthetics, and ethics would illustrate the 
normative sciences. Psychology describes and ex- 
plains states of consciousness, including how we think; 
logic tells us how we ought to think in order to reach 
valid conclusions. 

So our first question must now be restated in the 
form. Is there a descriptive, or a normative, science of 
educating; or, indeed, are the facts of educating 
capable of both modes of treatment? This is the 
question we must seek to answer as soon as we can 
agree what our second term, "educating," signifies. 

By "educating" in this connection we may agree to 
mean the realizing of the natural powers of pupils 



The Concept of a Science of Education 5 

through all the agencies of the school. This definition, 
and indeed the very form of the word we have chosen, — 
' ' educating, " — s^ iggest the activities of education. Edu- 
cating is no passive process; it is doing something; 
it is the fertilizing and cultivating of minds. Pre- 
supposing the inherent mental capacities as the gifts of 
nature, educating is a seeldng to find and to reaHze 
them. The term covers whatsoever the school, as one 
of the institutions of society, does to assist its members 
in becoming their true selves. 

This definition leads us at the threshold of our Educating 
inquiry to consider whether educating is primarily a an Art. 
science or an art. What a science is we have seen; 
an art in distinction from a science is action rather than 
knowledge. The arts are the practical endeavors of 
society to express its purposes. We speak of the arts 
of navigation, of war, of commerce, etc. Obviously, 
educating is primarily an art. It is one of the practical 
activities of society to attain a specific purpose. Just 
as society engages in the art of producing and distribut- 
ing wealth, of applying nature's forces to man's pur- 
poses, of healing diseases, of reforming criminals, of 
ministering to souls, so also it engages in the art of 
educating the young. In considering whether edu- 
cating is reducible to a science, we must not, therefore, 
lose sight of the fact that it is primarily an art. 

But the analogy of the other arts throws us back with The Analogy 

1 . T . .11 ^ ' of the Arts. 

emphasis upon the openmg question whether and in 
what sense there is a science of educating; for all the 
efficient arts of society rest upon sciences. There are 



6 The Psychological Principles of Education 

economic laws for the capitalist, natural and mathe- 
matical laws for the engineer, physiological and anatomi- 
cal laws for the physician, pathological and social laws 
for the criminologist, psychological and ethical laws 
for the minister. In proportion as educating is simi- 
lar to the other arts of society, analogy would lead us 
to suppose that there are some laws for the teacher. 
Educating is similar to the other arts in the essential 
respect of being a social activity to attain a specific 
purpose. This essential similarity warrants the pre- 
sumption by analogy that there are also laws for the 
educator. He alone in the group of social experts 
is not to be left without scientific guidance. Presump- 
tively at least, then, in addition to being primarily 
an art, educating is also secondarily a science. 

A Descriptive g^f now, in what scusc mav we think of educating 

Science of ' ' ^ ° 

Education. as a scicucc, descriptive or normative? There can 
be no question that a descriptive science of educat- 
ing is possible. Students of education can observe, 
gather, classify, organize, and verify facts. There 
is nothing about educational phenomena to prevent 
their being studied scientifically. Only those matters 
that are beyond human observation and verification, 
like the realities of pure philosophy, such as God, 
Freedom, and Immortality, forbid by their nature 
scientific treatment. The observable data for such 
a descriptive science of education are largely at hand 
in the educational documents of the race, including 
all accounts and reports of what the facts of education 
have been and are. If history is a descriptive science. 



The Concept of a Science of Education 7 

who can deny that the history of education is a de- 
scriptive science? And if there can be "A History 
of our own Times," there can be a history of contem- 
porary educational systems. A descriptive science 
of education would include then a careful and sys- 
tematic record of the past and present educational 
facts. Such a descriptive science associates itself 
with that group of the sciences commonly called 
social, other members of which are economics, so- 
ciology, and history. Remembering the extent to 
which the facts of education have been recorded, 
compiled, digested, and classified in our day, the ex- 
tent to which histories of education, however imper- 
fect, already exist as a result of such eager study, we 
must affirm that a descriptive science of education is 
not simply a possibihty, but also a partial actuality. 

If the original question as to the possibihty of a Conflicting 

r -, ... 1 . .1 Attitudes 

science of education had contemplated only a de- toward a 
scrip tive" science, not much warfare would have been S(!Je^c^*of 
waged concerning it. The centre of controversy has Education, 
been the deeper question, "Is a normative science of 
educating possible?" That is, is it at all possible to 
say not simply what education is, but also what it ought 
to be? Do the school processes admit at all of being 
directed toward an ideal? Is there any definable 
ideal of education? To such deep and far-reaching 
questions as these the answers have naturally been 
diverse. He whose mind is possessed by the changes 
of races, and conditions, and times, and problems 
that history has to record, answers quickly that no 



8 The Psychological Principles of Education 

universal science of educating, no absolute pedagogy, 
is possible. He whose mind, on the other hand, is 
possessed by the sameness in human nature, by the 
unity of the race, by the permanence of mental laws, 
answers firmly that in some sense there is possible 
a narrative science of educating. What answer shall 
we render? As leading the way to our conclusion, 
let us review the opposing arguments. It may turn 
out the two positions are not mutually contradictory, 
and that we may find a standing-ground between 
them. 
The Negative In 1 888 Profcssor Dilthey of the University of 
DiUh^J^and Berlin raised the question before the Berlin Academy 
Royce. Qf Scicnccs of the possibility of a universally valid 

pedagogical science.^ With the general negative con- 
clusion of this inquiry Professor Royce, in 1891, found 
himself in substantial agreement, as follows : — 

^'In short, scientific pedagogy, far from telling the 
teacher finally and completely just what human nature 
is, and must be, and just what to do with it, will be 
limited to pointing out what does, on the whole, tend 
toward good order and toward the organization of 
impulses, into character. ' This is the whole province 
of pedagogy' as a general science. Its applications 
to the conditions of a particular time, nation, family, 
and child, will be a matter of art, not science. . . . 

"There is no universally valid science of pedagogy 
that is capable of any complete formulation and of 
direct application to individual pupils and teachers, 

* "Ueber die Moglichkeit einer allgemeingiltigen pedagogischen 
Wissenschaft." 



The Concept of a Science of Education 9 

Nor will there ever be one as long as human nature 
develops, through cross-breeding in each new gener- 
ation, individual types that never were there before; 
so long as history furnishes, in every age, novel social 
environments, new forms of faith, new ideals, a new 
industrial organization, and thus new problems for 
the educator. . . . 

"To sum it all up in one word: Teaching is an art. 
Therefore there is indeed no science of education. 
But what there is, is the world of science furnishing 
material for the educator to study." ^ 

And with these conclusions many students of edu- 
cation find themselves in agreement. 

In estimating these notable and influential posi- 
tions of two leading thinkers, it is necessary to note 
carefully just what is denied, and the reasons for the 
denial. A universally valid science of educating is 
denied, because (i) conditions change, (2) individuals 
differ, and (3) teaching is an art. 

Concerning the facts that conditions change, indi- 
viduals differ, and teaching is an art, there may be no 
dispute. Concerning the conclusion from these facts 
that no universally valid science of educating is pos- 
sible, there may likewise be no dispute. But with 
' ,s conclusion we must not confuse, as the authors 

^m to do, the entirely different one, that "there is, 

deed, no science of education." Universal validity 

not one of the inalienable characteristics of science; 
-~ those characteristics, as we saw, were system and 

^ "Is there a Science of Education?" Educational Review, Vol. i, 
' vo articles. 



lo The Psychological Principles of Education 

verifiability. There may be a science of education 
that is not universally valid, just as there is a science 
of therapeutics not universally valid, whose principles 
depend for their application upon the peculiar condi- 
tion of the case diagnosed. In short, the fallacy of 
the argument is that which technical logicians call 
ignoratio elenchi, or irrelevant conclusion. 

Concerning the unquestionable conclusion that no 
universally valid science of education is possible, it 
is sufficient to remark that there is no need and no 
demand for such. All that society needs is a relative, 
not an absolute, pedagogy; is a growing, not a static^ 
educational ideal. 
TheArgu- g^|- J desire also to examine the reasons urged to 

ment from , ^ " 

Change of scc whether they would justify the conclusion that 
there is no science of education at all, either absolute 
or relative. The fact that the conditions of human 
society change from age to age does not warrant the 
conclusion that nothing can be said in each age con- 
cerning what education ought to be, but only the 
conclusion that what one age says another age must 
revise. The educational ideal must itself develop 
as the nature of human society successively discloses 
itself. Changing conditions do not negate normative 
educational procedure, — they only demand contin- 
uous improvement in educational procedure. The 
history of education is abundant warrant for this 
conclusion. Where social conditions have notably 
changed, quickly some educational reformer demanded 
that the schools adjust themselves to the new order. 
Indeed, it is also true that when some social reformer, 



Condition. 



The Concept of a Science of Education ii 

like Plato, has pictured an ideal society, he has also 
looked to education to enact his reforms with the young 
and plastic generation. That the fact of changing 
human conditions does not annul normative educa- 
tional science, a modem writer states thus: *'The 
social environment to be dealt with changes in char- 
acter with the evolution of the race, and varies with 
the different races; the physical environment is modi- 
fied by the locality, and so on. But our general prin- 
ciple, as a type of educational propositions, is none 
the less scientific because it has not just the same 
appHcation in all instances, though it may be less 
mathematical, less perspicacious, more complex and 
indeterminate on this account." * 

The second reason mentioned above, viz. individ- The Argu- 
ment from 
uals differ, does not invalidate a relative pedagogy, individual 

It is important to observe that the differences of in- ^^"^^^°"- 
dividuals as subjects of education are no greater than 
the differences between individuals as members of 
society, as having physical bodies, or as having intel- 
lectual, or emotional, or volitional natures; and yet 
the sciences of sociology, physiology, logic, aesthetics, 
and ethics seem possible. In other words, the objec- 
tion to the science of educating, if universalized, would 
render impossible all the existent sciences of man. 
On the other hand, the possibility of a relative nor- 
mative science of educating appears in the real and 
fundamental similarities of human beings. Our like- 
nesses are greater and deeper than our differences. 
Our processes of physical and mental activity are 

* O'Shea, "Education as Adjustment," p. 13. 



12 The Psychological Principles of Education 



The Argu- 
ment from 
Teaching as 
an Art. 



Conclusions 
of the Criti- 
cal Argu- 
ment. 



similar; the results of those processes in deeds and 
thoughts are different. The essential similarities of 
men appear in all their cooperative effort, like speech, 
industry, and the arts of civilization. Essential simi- 
larities in physical and mental action permit gener- 
alizations, and generalizations allow practical appH- 
cations. They suggest a norm, a standard, to which 
experience in general should conform. Because pupils 
in school are alike, general principles of guidance are 
possible ; indeed, in a considerable degree, they already 
exist. 

The last argument that, because teaching is an art, 
it is not a science, we have already had occasion to 
anticipate. Admittedly, teaching is primarily an art. 
This admission, however, does not warrant the con- 
clusion that teaching cannot be secondarily a science. 
Such a conclusion neglects the analogy of the arts. 
Besides, from the time of Socrates until now the teacher 
has had his norm in going about his work, has had 
what he conceived as a good and as a bad way of teach- 
ing. And when he did not know himself, others have 
not been hesitant in telling him how he ought to do. 
The argument here turns upon fact; and the fact is 
that educational standards of procedure, however 
imperfect, exist and have existed ever since education 
began to be reflectively considered among the Greeks. 

Considering the arguments of Professors Dilthey 
and Royce as a whole, we must conclude that they 
estabUsh that no universally vahd science of educat- 
ing is possible, but this conclusion is irrelevant ; also 
that the arguments do not disprove the real point 



The Concept of a Science of Education 13 

at issue, viz. whether a relative and adjustable norma- 
tive pedagogy is possible. Positively, the rebuttal 
of these arguments has rather tended to confirm the 
presumption given by the analogy of the arts, viz. 
that there is a sense in which a normative pedagogy 
is possible. 

In addition to the conspicuous objections just con- Another 
sidered, there is another rather general and popular Position 
one, that pedagogy is not exact. This objection goes Considered, 
along with the general feeling that knowledge deserv- 
ing to be called scientific ought to be exact. The 
feeling is natural. Exactitude is an ideal of scien- 
tific investigation. Also it must be fully admitted 
that pedagogy is not exact, as physics, chemistry, or 
astronomy are exact. 

But in reply to such considerations as serious ob- The inexact 
jections to the formulating of a science of educating, 
two things must be taken into account. One is, that 
there are also inexact sciences, like biology and so- 
ciology and psychology. Indeed, the sciences that 
deal with Hfe, the vital sciences, are all inexact. Only 
the Hfeless things, Uke matter, admit of rigidly exact 
treatment ; the live things defy our final measurements 
and descriptions, — they outgrow our accounts of 
them. None the less there are sciences of life, inex- 
act though they be. 

The second thing to remember is that the vital The increas- 

1 . 1 1 1 • 1 r . ^"g^y Exact 

phenomena, m general, and educational facts, m par- study of 
ticular, are being more and more successfully viewed Education. 
in exact statistical fashion. Not that mathematical 



14 The Psychological Principles of Education 

precision will ever be attained in the vital sciences, 
but such precision is the ideal of investigation, and is 
being ever more and more approximated. In the 
light of such newer work,^ we may confidently expect 
that educating will become increasingly an exact science, 
though never becoming finally so, and thus this ob- 
jection will have diminishing weight with the lapse 
of time. 



The Positive 
Position. 



The Argu- 
ment from 
Institutions. 



Is there a normative science of educating possible? 
A summary of the preceding considerations involves 
the following reasons for an affirmative answer; viz. 
(i) each age can and does say something concerning 
what the education of its own children ought to be; 
(2) the essential similarities of children permit rela- 
tive generalizations and applications; (3) the analogy 
of the arts suggests a science underlying the art of edu- 
cation; (4) the history of education reveals the pres- 
ence of conscious norms; (5) the normative science 
of education is, and probably must remain, inexact; 
and to these may be added, (6) the existence of normal 
institutions and the normative writings of educational 
experts, implying the reahty, if inadequacy, of an 
educational standard. 

To refer to this last argument from institutions 
and men more in detail. From the time when the 
Jesuits began in the seventeenth century to train their 
teachers, down through the service of the normal 
schools abroad and at home, even to the establish- 



^ Cf. for instance, the psychological and pedagogical writings of 
E. L. Thorndike. 



The Concept of a Science of Education 15 

ment to-day of schools, of education and graduate 
departments of pedagogy in connection with practice 
schools in our universities, various institutions have 
by their existence affirmed the possibility of a scien- 
tific knowledge of education. The position of various ^ 

educational writers will be the same. 

To omit consideration of Herbart, the most notable The Work of 

Alexander 

advocate, doubtless, of education as a science, we Bain, 
may mention the work and influence of Alexander 
Bain. In 1878 appeared his famous discussion, 
'' Education as a Science," which is the forerunner 
and the superior of many modern volumes. Bain 
opens his discussion with this paragraph: "The scien- 
tific treatment of any art consists partly in applying 
the principles furnished by the several sciences in- 
volved, as chemical laws to agriculture, and partly 
in enforcing, throughout the discussion, the utmost 
precision and vigor in the statement, deduction, and 
proof of the various maxims or rules that make up 
the art. . . ."^ 

"Further it aught to be pointed out, as specially 
applicable to our present subject, that the best attain- 
able knowledge on anything is due to a combination 
of general principles obtained from the sciences, with 
well-conducted observations and experiments made 
in actual practice. On every great ques.tion there 
should be a convergence of both lights. The techni- 
cal expression for this is 'the union of the Deduc- 
tive and Inductive Methods.' The deductions are to 
be obtained apart, in their own way, and with all 

^ "Education as a Science," p. i. 



1 6 The Psychological Principles of Education 

attainable precision. The inductions are the maxims 
of practice — purified, in the first instance, by wide 
comparison and by the requisite precautions." ^ 
The Work of jn 1886, to take another early example, Professor 

W.H.Payne. . 

W. H. Payne wrote his "Contributions to the Science 
of Education," from which I take the following pas- 
sage : "In respect of method, therefore, the case may 
be stated in this way : the greater part of the material 
composing the science of education is borrowed from 
other sciences; and these first principles, thus taken 
on trust, must be applied to use by the deductive 
method. There are other principles, however, that 
the science of education must find, and the method of 
this finding must be inductive ; but when actually 
found, these laws, like those that are borrowed, must 
be appHed deductively. But a concurrent factor 
throughout the whole science must be the verification 
of laws and their appHcations by the analytical study 
of results ; and this verification is an inductive process."^ 

The Methods jj^ addition to affirming the possibility of a science 
tionaisci- of educating. Bain and Payne also agree in suggest- 
ing the means whereby it is to be attained. Since 
whether a body of knowledge deserves to be called 
scientific or not depends so largely, almost exclusively, 
upon the method whereby it was attained, we may 
well consider next the scientific methods at the dis- 
position of students of educational phenomena. These 
are in general the same as those that belong to any 
scientific investigation; viz. generalizations from ob- 

1 Op. cit. p. 9. 2 pagg jg 



ence. 



The Concept of a Science of Education 17 

served phenomena and applications to new condi- 
tions; or, technically, induction and deduction. 

To consider the place of induction in the formation induction, 
of a science of educating. This is the newer mode 
of investigating educational facts, as, since Francis 
Bacon, it is the modern mode of investigating natural 
facts. It means the observing and classifying and 
explaining of all accessible educational data; it leads 
to what Professor Hanus and others have called "the 
organization of educational experience." It is the 
essential, though not exclusive, method whereby 
education as a descriptive science is being attained. 
The best in the descriptive is the basis for the norma- 
tive. Thus in education, as in other fields, induction 
is one of the two feet with which scientific progress 
has moved. 

To illustrate the contemporary emphasis upon in- 
ductive methods in educational studies, particularly 
methods of the exacter sort, I will quote from one of 
the texts referred to above: "The science of educa- 
tion when it develops will, like other sciences, rest upon 
direct observations of and experiments on the influ- 
ence of educational institutions and methods made 
and reported with quantitative precision. Since 
groups of variable facts will be the material it studies, 
statistics will everywhere be its handmaid. The 
chief duty of serious students of education to-day is 
to form the habit of inductive study and learn the 
logic of statistics." ^ 

We may feel sure that these exacter inductive methods Deduction. 

^ Thorndike, "Educational Psychology," pp. 163-164. 
c 



1 8 The Psychological Principles of Education 

are the source of our coming educational discoveries. 
Meanwhile, the other foot upon which scientific 
progress has marched must not be omitted. Deduc- 
tion applies what induction discovers. Induction has 
already discovered much concerning the nature of 
man. These results are embodied in the sciences of 
man, like anthropology, sociology, psychology, logic, 
aesthetics, ethics, and the rest. These sciences by what 
they already reveal concerning man are able to suggest 
what man's true nature is. They consequently can 
suggest the educational ideal. The educational ideal 
is the realization of man's true nature. The results 
then of these sciences of man need to be put in utiliz- 
able shape for those who would intelligently develop 
a man according to his true nature. The knowledge 
of the real nature of man, that is what educators need. 
Such knowledge suggests both the goal of human 
development and the means necessary, in consonance 
with past developmental agencies, to reach that goal. 
The definition of this goal and the means of its attain- 
ment involves present deductive applications of past 
inductive discoveries. Here again, it is the knowl- 
edge of what man is that suggests what he ought to 
be. The normative is the idealizing of the descriptive. 
We find a contemporary illustration of the use of 
the logical method of deduction in the field of educa- 
tion in the numerous, often crude, so-called psycholo- 
gies for teachers. The most of them are in large 
part both poor psychology and unpractical pedagogy. 
There are a few oases, however, in the desert, like 
James's " Talks to Teachers." But the number of these 



The Concept of a Science of Education 19 

books recently illustrates the legitimate demand that 
psychology shall place its knowledge of the human 
mind at the disposition of the teacher. That the 
quahty of these books at first should have been poor 
is natural. Scientific psychologists had, as a rule, the 
abiHty but not the inclination to make educational 
appHcation, while the practical pedagogue had, as a 
rule, the inclination but not the ability. We may con- 
fidently expect the quahty of the apphed psychologies 
to improve continually from the increasing attention 
that the psychological experts are giving educational 
problems. 

But we need something else in the normative science The Use of 

1 . 1 . 1 . .1 ,. All the 

of education besides an improvement m the quality sciences of 
of the practical psychologies. We need even more ^^"* 
to-day educational applications from the whole range 
of the sciences of man, including anthropology, so- 
ciology, logic, aesthetics, ethics, the science of religion, 
etc. The search-lights of all the human sciences need 
to be turned upon contemporary educational methods 
and ideals. To begin with, biology must tell us what 
education can and cannot do for a man. The other 
sciences must tell us how man has developed in order 
that we may use these same forces in forwarding his 
progress ; also what his goal is, so far as it can be dimly 
suggested, that we may move in the right direction. 
If, for example, anthropologists have discovered that, 
"in human childhood, whether of race or individ- 
ual, the hand leads the mind,"^ here is a fact most 

^ Cf. W. J. McGhee, "Strange Races of Men," World's Work,- 
August, 1904. 



10 The Psychological Principles of Education 

significant for the educator in dealing with the problem 
of manual training. If, for example, the science of 
religion reveals man, in the words of the lamented 
Sabatier, as ''incurably religious," here is an element 
of the educational ideal whose omission is intolerable. 
It is the destiny of man to become completely what 
he already is potentially. So far, thus, from being 
limited to appHed psychologies, educational science 
must include the appKcation of all the organic and 
human sciences. Confronting this standard of edu- 
cational science, giants become pygmies, and experts 
blunderers. 



What a 
Science of 
Education 
most Needs. 



Welcome all the agencies that are manfully and 
courageously attacking this central problem of human 
welfare. For a science of education the essential 
demand is for scientists at work in its field, for those 
who can both wisely induce from past and present 
facts, and safely deduce from all the sciences of man. 
To quote Professor O'Shea again, "The greatest need 
in education to-day is the development of the scien- 
tific temper among teachers, and the adoption of scien- 
tific method by all who treat of educational questions." * 
To such scientific investigators we can trust the child- 
study movement, the pedagogical experiment stations, 
the educational laboratories, and all the deductive 
applications. It is no time for lamenting that the 
noonday of educational science is not here, for the 
dawn appears, nor for complaining at the futility of 
past endeavors, for we are already entering into those 

^ "Education as Adjustment," Preface. 



The Concept of a Science of Education 21 

pioneer labors. ''It is possible, conceivably it is 
more than possible, that modern pedagogics may be 
struggling out of darkness into some more divine light 
than has been vouchsafed as yet." ^ 

We may now summarize our answer to the opening Summary, 
question. A descriptive science of education is clearly 
possible, — the concept of such a science being only 
classified and verifiable knowledge concerning what 
education is. A normative science of education also 
appears possible, — the concept of such a science 
being a body of growing knowledge classified and 
verifiable concerning how and toward what goal educa- 
tion ought to proceed. This science is continuously 
derived inductively from all the experience of the 
school and deductively from all the sciences of man. 
The implications of experience must be tested by the 
results of the sciences, and the applications of the 
sciences must be tested in the crucible of experience. 
From the attrition of these two, as from the upper 
and lower millstones, will issue the strength of edu- 
cational life. May the succeeding pages contribute 
their iota to this youngest science ! 

That such a science is a consummation devoutly 
to be wished, the labors of the educational reformers 
of the world, the longings of practical teachers and 
superintendents, and the needs of society for the 
greater man and woman, abundantly testify. What 
science has already been able to attain in the almost 

^ Barrett Wendell, "Our National Superstition," North American 
Review, September, 1904. 



22 The Psychological 'Principles of Education 

virgin field of education condemns idle doubt and 
warrants the faith that works. Educators are learn- 
ing to say with Mackay, — 

" Blessings on Science ! when the world seemed old, 
And faith grew doubting, and reason cold, 
'Twas she discovered that the world was young, 
And taught a language to its lisping tongue." 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Classification of the Sciences. 

2. The Relations of Science and Art. 

3. The Relations of Descriptive and Normative Science. 

4. Herbart's Conception of the Science of Education. 

References on the Science of Education 

Bain, Education as a Science, ch. I. 

Boone, Science of Education, chs. XIII, XV, XVI, XXVII. 

Dilthey, Ueber die Moglichkeit einer allgemeingiltigen peda- 

gogischen Wissenschaft. 1888. 
Findlay, The Scope of the Science of Education, Ed. Rev. Vol. 14, 

pp. 236 et seq. 
Harris, Relation of the Art to the Science of Education, Proc. 

N. E. A., 1884, pp. 190 et seq. 
Hinsdale, Studies in Education, pp. 91-112. 
O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, Part I. 
Payne, Contributions to the Science of Education, chs. I, II, 

III. 
Royce, Is there a Science of Education ? Ed. Rev., Vol. i, pp. 15, 

121 et seq. 
Sinclair, The Possibility of a Science of Education. Chicago, 

1903. 
Thorndike, Educational Psychology, ch. XV. New York, 1903. 
Young, Scientific Method in Education, Chicago Decennial Pub- 
lications, Vol. Ill, pp. 141 et seq. 



CHAPTER II 

THE RELATION OF THE HISTORY TO THE SCIENCE OF 
EDUCATION 

In the preceding chapter it was said that the history 
of education reveals the presence of conscious norms. 
This chapter will attempt to illustrate this statement 
and also to suggest the purpose and utihty of the his- 
tory of education for the student of its science. 

The study of the history of education tends to dve The Purpose 

, 1 . ■, 1 / . r ^ of the History 

us several desirable results, viz. an account of what of Education, 
was thought about the child in any period of the world's 
history and the consequent educational attitude toward 
him, the real centre of all educational endeavor; an 
account of the methods used in attaining that end for 
which the child was supposed to exist; an account of 
the lives, characters, and theories of those men that 
have taught and fashioned the teaching of the world; 
an account of those educational tendencies larger than 
individual men and spanning years and hundreds of 
years in their influence; a description of the social, 
political, and religious conditions under which the 
separate systems of education flourished, and of which 
they were an integral part; and lastly, and perhaps 
most significant of all for the scientific student of edu- 
cation, its history describes and explains the stages in 
the development of the gradually unfolding educational 

23 



24 The Psychological Principles of Education 

ideal. No mind to-day unacquainted with the grand 
sweeps of past educational thought and practice as they 
have brought us down to our present can say in any 
detail what is the educational ideal. It will come, 
when it comes, as the issue of the educational travail 
of the ages. The children of this generation cannot 
become perfect apart from the children of the former 
times. 

The Utility of The Utility of an intensive study of the history of 

the History of ^ - ^^^ .1 , . . 

Education, cducation Will appear m the comprehensive view, 
unnarrowed by the circle of the present, of the world- 
wide, civilization-old field of education ; in the height- 
ened ability to avoid those failures in practice and 
to repeat those successes which are there set for our 
instruction; in the knowledge of the origin of those 
systems and institutions with which we have to work 
to-day; in the inspiration and high enthusiasm that 
follows from touching hearts and hands with the most 
notable teaching personalities of the years, like Soc- 
rates, Jesus, and Pestalozzi; and finally too in the 
knowledge of those permanent principles of instruc- 
tion sifted from chaff by the winds of many a trial, in 
obedience to which the educational ideal is to be 
increasingly attained. 

Several specific illustrations will now make clear the 
intimacy existing between the history and the science 
of education. The educational ideal is what the 
science of education seeks. The national ideal is 
one of the elements which the history of education 



Relation of History to Science of Education 25 

must include. Now it seems to be true that the edu- TheEduca- 
cational ideal is both the effect and the cause of the National 
national ideal, the effect of the past national ideal, the ^^^^^s. 
cause of the future national ideal. With the national 
ideal of freedom and democracy in America goes the 
educational ideal of a free and universal system of in- 
struction; with the national ideal of despotism and 
repression in Russia goes the educational ideal of en- 
lightenment for the few and ignorance for the many. 
The setting of the norm or standard of educating in 
any country is dependent upon that country's con- 
ception of what a citizen ought to be. The science 
of education in any period is in part a logical deduc- 
tion from that period's history and civilization. 

The permanent educational lesson of the Orient is ^^^ Lesson 
the subjection of individuality. There the things 
thought of are absolute rulers, priests, caste, codes of 
etiquette, parental government, and there is a sense 
of the reality and unity of the social order inclusive of 
all individuals unimagined in a Western mind. All 
this seems foreign enough to us. Yet no part of the 
race's life has been spent in vain, and the lasting lesson 
of the Orient is the place of obedience in life. The 
East is the perpetuation of the childhood of the race. 
The child in the West must, too, ever learn to obey; 
he first is subjected to elders and the old customs of 
society before he can reach individuality and self- 
control. 

The permanent educational lesson of the West is The Lesson 

.1 . -.,..,,. TT 1 1 • of the West. 

the expression of individuality. Here the things 
thought of are free thought, free speech, free action, 



26 The Psychological Principles of Education 

free press, local self-government, representative gov- 
ernment, and democracy, — a freedom most loved 
by those once bound in the shackles of some form of 
Oriental suppression and novi^ liberated. This lesson 
of the West is due to the welding of Christianity with 
its idea of the divine worth of the individual to the 
Teutonic race with its "demonic sense of individu- 
ality," as Tacitus described it. To these two influ- 
ences is due that liberty of individual initiative which 
is the chief glory of Western peoples. And our 
schools, which are the reflection of our life, demand 
fulness of individual growth. If there be first obedi- 
ence, it is only that later there may be liberty, the 
liberty that consists not in the absence of law, but in 
conformity to righteous law. 
The Mutual- The passivity of the East is a good balance-wheel 
and'wit ^^^ ^^^ activity of the West. What the West has to 
teach the East is progress, investigation, the natural 
sciences, and the spirit of freedom ; what the East 
has to teach the West is conservatism, meditation, 
independence of material environment, and the spirit 
of restraint. The lesson for which each hemisphere 
stands it has incorporated into its system of education. 
In the East, through the training of memory and the 
study of the ancient classics of literature and philos- 
ophy, and the teaching of the duties appropriate to 
each class in society, the individual is fitted to occupy 
his predestined place. In the West, through the train- 
ing of observation, and the study of natural forces, 
and the teaching of the duty to become one's unham- 
pered best self, the individual is fitted to make for 



Relation of History to Science of Education 27 

himself his own place. These two attitudes not so 
much contradict as supplement each other, for there 
is an element of determinism and there is an element 
of freedom in human life. In short, the human edu- 
cational ideal must include both the passive and the 
active elements, both conservatism and radicalism, 
both subjection and freedom, both the East and the 
West. Thus is illustrated how the educational ideal 
as sought by the science of education is a resultant of 
the synthesis of the surviving national ideals as de- 
scribed by the history of education. 

In the same fashion great civilizations in the East The Goal of 
and West, like Persia, Egypt, India, Judea, Greece, tory and the 
Rome, would have permanent elements to contribute Educational 

. -^ . Ideal. 

out of their practice of education to the modern ideal 
of education, which would thus appear as the rich 
resultant of many conveying forces in which no frag- 
ment of a valuable ideal wrought out in any country 
would be lost. All of which means to say that the 
educational ideal should be framed in harmony with 
the natural goal of human history. When we ask 
what is the goal toward which human development 
is tending, broad students of history and government 
differ in their interpretation. Many historians do not 
care to undertake the answer of the question at all. 
For those who do undertake the answer, the subject 
is too great not to differ about. A profound philos- 
ophy must underlie any answer than can be given. 
Some will maintain with Hegel that progress in self- 
consciousness is what history means. Some will 
maintain with such educational writers as Professor 



28 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Paul Monroe and Professor Mark that the harmony 
of the individual and society is what history is gradu- 
ally bringing forth. Others will agree with the wide 
generalization of John Fiske that the development 
of moral character and progress toward the perfec- 
tion of the living God is what the history of the world 
is set to accomphsh. Still others will find themselves 
in agreement with the mode of statement used by 
President Wilson, viz. history means the equalization 
of the conditions under which individuality is developed. 
More and more as the swift seasons roll in every coun- 
try of our planet man is given the straight, square oppor- 
tunity to become what he can. Birth is discounted, 
restrictions are removed, wealth is no passport, poverty 
no shame, and the strong bear the burdens of the weak. 
The making equal of the conditions that develop indi- 
viduality means a sensitive social conscience, a respon- 
siveness to the inequalities of social conditions. We 
should doubtless all agree that this result is at least a 
part of the goal of human history, in harmony with 
which the educational ideal must include the element 
of the socialized individual: the individual that is 
quick in responding to social need, intelligent in the 
adoption of social means, and efficient in reaching 
social ends. 
The Histo- In its relations to the ideals of education, the his- 

ries of Edu- r i • • i • i r i i • 

cation and tory 01 cducation IS here viewed as a part of the history 
Civilization. q£ civilization, which treats of the ideas and the ideals 
contributed by nations to the life of the world. The jus- 
tification of this view appears in the consideration that 
education is one of the most effective civilizing forces 



Relation of History to Science of Education 29 

known to man. No complete history of civilization 
could omit the educational element, as no complete 
history of education could omit reference to those 
national ideals recorded in the history of civilization. 
The history of education thus has something to say 
concerning the definition of the educational ideal. 
That ideal cannot be framed in ignorance of the Greek 
ideal of culture, of the Roman ideal of efficiency, of 
the Hebrev^ ideal of goodness, of the mediasval ideal 

of training, and the modern ideal of service. — 

The history of education also has something to say The History 

, , . . , r • J .' 1 1 of Education 

concernmg those prmciples of mstruction v^hereby and the 
the ideal is to be approximately attained. The defi- Methods of 
nition of the scientific method of educating cannot be 
stated apart from the concept of Socrates, the dialectic 
of Plato, the observation of Aristotle, the parable of 
Jesus, the induction of Bacon, the sense-perception of 
Comenius, the child-study of Rousseau, and the sym- 
pathy of Pestalozzi. The method of educating is the 
synthesis of those methods that the great educators 
have used. 

To sum up, in conclusion, the relations of the his- Summary, 
tory to the science of education, we may say: (i) the 
educational ideal of any nation is both an effect and a 
cause of its national ideal; (2) the human educational 
ideal is ultimately definable only in consistency with 
the natural goal of historic human development; and 
(3) the principles of educating by which the educational 
ideal is to be approached are those that the history of 
educational practice has vindicated. 



30 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Problems for Further Study 

1. The Ideals of Different Ancient and Modern Nations. 

2. The Goal of Human History. 

3. The Educational Ideal. 

4. The Principles of Instruction used by Great Educators like 

Socrates. 



References on the Relation of the History to the Science 
OF Education 

Bourne, The Teaching of History and Civics, chs. I and V. 

Davidson, Aristotle, ch. V. 

Davidson, History of Education, pp. 254 et seq. 

Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education, ch. XXXIII. 

Hegel, Philosophy of History, passim. 

Hinsdale, The Culture Value of the History of Education, Proc. 
N. E. A., pp. 210-231. 

Laurie, An Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education, Intro- 
duction. 

Lamprecht, What is History? chs. IV and V. 

Mark, IndividuaHty and the Moral Aim in American Education, 
ch. I. 

Monroe, Text-Book in the History of Education, ch. XIV. 

Morris, " The Philosophy of the State and of History," in Methods 
of Teaching and Studying History, Boston, 1898, pp. 149 
et seq. 

Munroe, The Educational Ideal, chs. I and X. 

Payne, Contributions to the Science of Education, ch. XI. 

Rosenkranz, The Philosophy of Education, Part III. 

Ware, Educational Foundations of Trade and Industry, ch. I. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION 

Under this title I desire to discuss the presuppo- 
sitions of education, the different ideals of education, 
the elements of the problem of education, and the 
task of the teacher as he assists in the solution of the 
problem. 

By the presuppositions of education are meant those '^^^ Presup- 

, . . , 1.11 1 . 1 positions of 

thmgs without which the educational process cannot Education, 
go on. These in number are four, viz. the pupil ^ 
the curriculum, the educational environment, and the 
teacher. They cannot be further reduced; the sim- 
plest educational situation, even Garfield's famous de- 
scription of a college as Mark Hopkins on one end of 
a log and a student on the other, involves these four 
elements. The efhciency of the educational process 
is conditioned by the efhciency and harmony of these 
cooperating parts. 

The pupil is the real centre of the educational pro- The Pupil, 
cess, despite the fact that doceo shows the Romans 
thought the person the indirect, but the thing the direct, 
object of instruction. The pupil is that immature 
person about whom curriculum, environment, and 
teacher revolve. He with his fellows represents the 
social potentiality of the present and the social power 
of the future. We cannot too deeply impress our- 

31 



32 The Psychological Principles of Education 



The Curricu 
lum. 



selves with the conclusion that education as such is 
an abstraction and becomes concrete only when em- 
bodied in social individuals. 

The curriculum is that which the pupil is taught. 
It involves more than the acts of learning and quiet 
study: it involves occupations, productions, achieve- 
ments, exercise, activity. It thus is representative 
of the motor as well as the sensory elements in the 
nervous system of the pupil. On the side of society 
it is representative of what the race has done in its 
contact with its world, — the secrets of knowledge 
it has wrested from the bosoms of nature and man, 
the ideals of the imagination it has embodied in per- 
manent forms of art, and the deeds of man's will that 
have changed the face of nature and the character of 
human society. 

The educational environment includes all those 
conditions under which the educational process goes 
on. The day is gone when a log is enough. Gar- 
field's remark has already served too long the obstruc- 
tionist to improvements of the educational plant. The 
environment must include buildings, grounds, interior 
decoration, sanitation, books, laboratories, apparatus, 
and material for occupations. The more useful, 
artistic, neat, clean, ample, the educational environ- 
ment, the more and the better are the responses of 
pupils. A certain college president remarked he made 
no better investment of college money than keeping the 
grass on the college campus well mown. 
The Teacher. The teacher is the Kfe-sharer. The educational 
process at bottom is the sharing of life. He is my 



The Educa 
tional En- 
vironment, 



The Problem of Education ^3 

teacher, whoever he be, who, maturer than I, shares 
my Hfe. With his relatively mature life the teacher 
enters into and takes upon himself the lives of his 
pupils that they may become one with him. However 
mature he may be, the teacher must see to it that he 
have teachers of his own: those poets, priests, and 
prophets of the rac in whose light he sees light and 
from whose life his own life is quickened. Teaching 
at bottom is the art of stimulating the growth of the 
soul; no less conception of it is quite true or worthy. 
Immature pupils of capacity, widening their lives 
by each of many teachers' lives, become individually 
greater than any one of their teachers. Thus the 
human coefficient is multiplied with the passage of 
the generations. Thus the race itself is incorporat- 
ing more and more of the divine experience through 
being taught of its great ones, themselves taught of 
God. The man or woman that accepts in spirit and 
in truth the office of teacher as the sharing of Hfe 
comes into the keeping of the secrets of the Most High. 

These then are the presuppositions of education. The Different 
the things behind the educational process. Facing Educatton. 
about, what are the post-suppositions, as they might 
be called, of education, the things before the educa- 
tional process, the ideals toward which the movement 
is directed? There are as many answers to-day as 
there have been ages of civihzation in the past. Among 
these ideals for which different times and nations have 
stood and for which the modern educational world in 
various ways stands are to be enumerated the following : , 



34 The Psychological Principles of Education 

culture, efficiency, discipline, knowledge, development, 
character, and citizenship. 

Culture. Culture is the capacity for the intellectual and 

aesthetic enjoyment of leisure; it was the educational 
ideal of ancient Greece and the inspiration of the lib- 
eral education of the Renaissance; it is a word par- 
ticularly needed by modern overworked society. 

Efficiency. Efficiency is the abihty to do things quickly and 

well. It was the educational ideal of ancient Rome 
and is the inspiration of the modern demand for prac- 
tical education. It is an indispensable word in any 
system of universal education, which the Greeks did 
not have, and in all democratic, progressive, and free 
societies. 

Discipline. DiscipHue is sharpening the tools of consciousness. 

The word has had a great run in educational history 
from the mediaeval religious discipline of the soul, 
through the later discipline of the ''faculties," to the 
modern discipline of the mind. It will retain its place 
as an educational ideal to the extent that the school 
is considered a place of preparation for later living 
instead of a place of present living. As a matter of 
fact the best preparation for later living is right pres- 
ent living; at the same time present immature living 
is not so real as later maturer living. For this reason 
the conception of discipline has a real, though greatly 
limited, place in the educational ideal. 

Knowledge. Knowledge is content of consciousness descriptive of 
fact. It is a fairly constant element in the educational 
ideal running through the ages, based on the funda- 
mental human instincts of curiosity and wonder. 



The Problem of Education 35 

Under the influence of the modern re-discovery of 
nature through the stimulus of Bacon's *' Novum Or- 
ganum" and the EngUsh empirical school led by Locke, 
knowledge became the dominant ideal of education, 
as illustrated in the Pansophic plans of Comenius. 
The presence of the natural and physical sciences in 
the modern curriculum is witness to this ideal. The 
joy of scientific discovery will ever remain a part of 
the scholar's portion. The field of human knowledge 
is too broad for any future Aristotle to compass it 
satisfactorily for thirty succeeding generations. The 
preservation of old, and the pursuit of new, knowledge 
will ever remain a part of an inclusive educational 
ideal. 

Development as an educational ideal means the Deveiop- 
realization of the capacities inherent in human nature. 
The emphasis upon this ideal began with Rousseau 
and was continued by Pestalozzi and Froebel. The 
conception that consciousness grows and is not made 
was prior to Darwin's theory that the body grows and 
is not made, and the influence of the ideal of develop- 
ment on education is analogous in extent to the influ- 
ence of the theory of evolution on science. Through 
its influence it is no longer possible to attribute to 
education the making of men and women; all that 
education does is to bring to the fruition native po- 
tentiahty. The increase of potentiality in the race is 
nature's work through the mating of strong person- 
alities. Education adds nothing directly to human 
endowment, but does make it usable. It ought now 
to go further and begin to fit for wise parenthood. 



^6 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Character. 



Citizenship. 



As development is the true mode of growth it can never 
cease to be a portion of the educational ideal. 

Character is the disposition of a person's will. It 
is the great word introduced into the theory of the aim 
of education by Herbart, who himself received it from 
his predecessor, the sage of Konigsberg, Immanuel 
Kant. It is Kant who says the only absolutely good 
thing in the world is a good will. The great German 
idealists, Fichte and Hegel, take up the strain that the 
end of education is the formation of moral character. 
Schopenhauer agrees with Kant in attaching primacy 
to the will. The great common sense of mankind has 
always held that the head must not be educated at the 
expense of the heart. The feelings of worth attaching 
to the life devoted to righteousness demand that 
character form a permanent constituent of the educa- 
tional ideal. 

Citizenship is man's place in the state. It is the 
most recent of the words that have come to the fore 
concerning the true ideal of education, so recent that 
perhaps no leader of the movement can be selected, 
though the name of Horace Mann may be mentioned. 
The ideal of citizenship, of taking one's place in the 
state, appears prominently in the aristocratic Repub- 
lic of Plato, but his education after all is mainly for 
the philosopher kings rather than the artisan subjects. 
The modern revival of the study of history, the new 
sciences of economics and sociology, and the magni- 
tude of modem social and political problems, have 
all tended to emphasize the educational ideal of citi- 
zenship, particularly in America, the country that has 



The Problem of Education 



37 



done most for the individuahty of its citizens. As 
the state is one of the permanent institutions of society, 
and as man must ever Hve in organized relations with 
his fellows, citizenship cannot be omitted from the 
constituency of the educational ideal. 

From this brief review of the different educational 
ideals of past and present we are at once face to face 
with the first of the elements of the problem of educa- 
tion, viz. a definition of the educational ideal. 

Among the elements that so into the composition TheEie- 

r , , 1.11, 1 mentsofthe 

of the complex educational problem may be enu- problem of 
merated the following: (i) the organization of the edu- Education, 
cational ideal; (2) the securing of the attendance of 
pupils in school; (3) the provision of a worthy cur- 
riculum; (4) the provision of a worthy educational 
environment; and (5) the approximate attainment 
of the educational ideal in practice. The immediate 
relationship between the presuppositions of education 
and the elements of the problem of education will 
be observed. 

The organization of the educational ideal as one of Theory, 
the elements of the problem of education falls to the 
lot of the educational theorist. He will probably 
find that the educational ideal is no single one of the 
various historic ideals reviewed above, but is a synthesis 
of them all with due emphasis upon each. Not in 
the part but in the whole is the truth to be found. 
For the individual's sake, education must aim at cul- 
ture, knowledge, and development; for society's sake, 
it must aim at efficiency, character, and citizenship. 



38 The Psychological Principles of Education 



And when this is said it must be quickly added 
that the individual aims are also secondarily social, 
and the social aims are also secondarily individual. 

Attendance. The securing of the attendance of pupils in school 
as one of the elements in the problem of education 
falls especially to the lot of parents and society. How 
the responsibility rests upon parents is obvious. It 
will also be observed how society itself is responsible 
in the form of public opinion, compulsory attendance 
laws, the employment of child labor in factories, an 
educational qualification for the suffrage, etc. Sec- 
ondarily, what the school itself is plays a part in the 
attendance problem. 

Curriculum. The provision of a worthy curriculum and educa- 
tional environment as elements taken together in the 
problem of education falls to the lot of the adminis- 
trative authorities and teachers of the school. Through 
these alone the curriculum is determined, and through 
these mainly is to be fostered that public opinion 
which by taxation liberally supports the school sys- 
tem. Wisdom is as much needed to-day in the expen- 
diture of school funds already provided as tact in se- 
curing larger appropriations. 

Practice. The approximate attainment of the educational 

ideal in practice, the most vital of all the elements of 
the problem of education, falls primarily to the lot of 
the teacher. He it is that, given the aim, the pupils, 
the curriculum, the environment, must stimulate and 
direct the growth of human souls. He is the only 
essential factor in solving the problem of education, 
as witness Socrates and Jesus. A really great teacher 



j 



The Problem of Education 39 

anywhere attracts pupils, makes the curriculum worthy, 
consecrates any environment, and is himself the educa- 
tional ideal. We may come somewhat closer to the 
task of the teacher. 

The task of the teacher involves at least four ele- The Task of 

the Teacher. 

ments, viz., first, so to instruct and to occupy as to 
develop his pupils. Information is communicated, Developer, 
gathered, or elicited from pupils' minds in a way to 
realize power, and occupations are provided in a way 
both to arouse and to satisfy interest, and to attain 
skill. The teacher, whether by sensory or motor 
material, is the developer. 

Second, it is the task of the teacher to be the me- Mediator, 
dium of communication between the pupils' mind and 
the subject-matter. Without him, it is dead stuff to 
them. He knows both them and it. From it he 
selects those things they can bear and them he gradu- 
ally widens to cover it. Without him, they are self- 
taught, and so poorly taught ; with him, their growth 
is consecutive and the subject appears in its intrinsic 
and extrinsic articulation. The teacher, between im- 
personal truth and personal life, is the mediator. 

Third, it is the task of the teacher to interpret life interpreter, 
to his pupils. Living is the great art. In its keeping 
are the keys of destiny. Through inexperience the 
art of living well is difficult to pupils. Through his 
wider experience and observation the teacher is, or 
ought to be, comparatively a master of the art of liv- 
ing. To him are known the shallows and the rocks 
and also the great safe deep, with the harbor beyond. 



Progress. 



40 The Psychological Principles of Education 

While his pupils are with him, he is their advisory, 
not compulsory, pilot; from him they learn the art 
of steering well the vessel of life. It is a vessel al- 
ways freighted with merchandise precious to others. 
Figures aside, the teacher, by his daily walk and conver- 
sation, throws in true perspective the good and bad 
of life, translates into the language of immaturity 
life's great words of truth, is the interpreter of life. 
The Priest of Fourth, as if what has preceded were not enough, 
as if to him that hath shall be given and he shall have 
abundantly, it is the task of the teacher to perfect 
mind, — the last instrument selected in evolutionary 
progress. Evolution is .now proceeding along mental 
instead of physical lines. Mental competition has 
taken the place of the old physical struggle for survival. 
The last innings are those of the spirit ; upon the treat- 
ment of the spirit in this epoch of the world's change 
depends the next destiny of the human race. Long 
before the time allotted by the astronomers for our 
planet to become a dead frozen ball humanity will 
have decided whether the gift of the spirit is too much 
for it or no. The content of historic time and a pro- 
found philosophy unite in an optimistic outlook, — 
spirit will preserve itself, man will become yet greater. 
The whole weight of the teacher's influence is cast for 
the individual and social preservation of the spirit; 
he brings souls into their kingdom. He is the 
prophet and priest of progress. 

Because of the greatness of his task, let the teacher 
magnify his ofEce. But lest he magnify it unduly 
and the vice of pride supplant the virtue of humility. 



The Problem of Education 41 

let him remember his fellow- servants, the parent, the 
statesman, the minister, and also that to no one nor all 
of these does this world and its future belong, nor are 
their tasks self-appointed. 

Problems for Further Study 

1 Definition of the Educational Ideal. 

2 Theory and Content of the Curriculum. 

3 The Mental Basis of Evolution. 

References on the Problem of Education 

Ge, Education in Religion and Morals, chs. VII, VIII, XI, and 

XXII. 
Hdley, The Education of the American Citizen, pp. 150-160. 
linderson, Education and the Larger Life, chs. II, IV, and XL 
hughes. The Making of Citizens, Introduction. 
\Ionroe, Text -Book in the History of Education, ch. XIV. 
Search, An Ideal School, ch. XII. 
Tucker, "The Sacredness of Citizenship," Froc. N. E. A., Vol. 

Ill, pp. 56 et seq. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS OF THE TEACHER 

The pertinence of this theme to the preceding dis 
cussion is obvious. The teacher's part in the solutioi 
of the problem of education is predominant and hs 
consequent task is great. What are the qualificatiors 
essential to its performance? 

The limitation *' essential" in the title is important. 
To enumerate all the qualifications of the teacher would 
comprise an account of all the elements of manhood. 
Here I simply wish to write of those things without any 
one of which a prospective teacher should resign hi$ 
intention. 
What are Jt is a familiar remark of Dr. Arnold's that the 

they? 

qualifications for which he looked in teachers were 

character, tact, and scholarship. Taking this suggest 

tion from a great head-master as a starting point, and 

reversing the order for purposes of discussion, then 

seem to me to be four indispensable qualifications oj 

the teacher, viz. a knowledge of the subject taught 

a knowledge of the pupils taught, the ability to teach 

and a worthy character. Once again we are led t( 

remember the presuppositions of education, alread] 

discussed. If the teacher is master of these, that i^ 

of his subject, of his pupils, of his equipment, and o 

42 



Essential Qualifications of the Teacher 43 

himself, he is qualified to teach. It will be noticed that 
the colleges and universities in their preparation of 
teachers have underemphasized the knowledge of the 
pupils and the ability to teach, that the normal schools 
have underemphasized the knowledge of the subject, 
while all have agreed in affirming that a worthy charac- 
ter is necessary. Each of these qualifications, re- 
garded as essential, must now receive attention in 
succession. 

And first, the knowledge of the subject. Why must The Knowi- 

1 1 1 . 1 . -.X 111 edge of the 

the teacher know his subject? it would be a super- subject. 
fluous question if teachers really knew their subjects. 
Let us urge with several reasons an accurate and com- 
prehensive knowledge of their subjects upon all teachers. 
It seems so obvious to observe that we cannot teach Without 

Knowledge 

what we do not know. The Frenchman Jacotot, how- no Teaching, 
ever, said this very thing could be done, and our prac- 
tice is often in accord with his theory. We fish and 
catch what pupils know when our own basket is empty. 
When they ask us questions we cannot answer; we tell 
them that would be a good thing to look up. It is bet- 
ter in theory and practice to follow Plato, '' No one can 
give to another that which he has not himself, or teach 
that of which he has no knowledge." ^ 

Again, he must know the advanced principles of his Know Much 
subject in order to be able to teach its elements. No Little. 
one can teach all he knows. To teach as much as he 
has to teach, he must know more. To teach the lower 
he must be capable of teaching the higher. The lower 

^ Symposium, 196 E, tr. Jowett. 



44 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Knowledge 

begets 

Enthusiasm. 



and Self- 
confidence, 



and the 
Respect of the 
Class. 



is intelligible only in the light of the higher. It takes 
the calculus, if we but knew it, to get from i to 2 ; it 
takes comparative philology, if we but knew it, to get 
from a to b, especially to get from b to c. The great 
universities put their large elementary classes in any 
subject into the keeping of their most advanced pro- 
fessors. 

Again, an increasing knowledge of his subject begets 
a real enthusiasm in the teacher. In his case as well as 
with his pupils interest follows in the wake of growing 
knowledge. He comes into his class room with the 
ardor of achievement about him. Nothing spreads 
more rapidly than a genuine feeling. His class catches 
his spirit; his developing knowledge, his real interest, 
arouse them also. Together they can now work, and 
a new dynamic, the power of an enthusiastic interest, 
is introduced into school life. It will come through one 
well-endowed teacher knowing his subject. 

A knowledge of his subject begets, further, a certain 
degree of self-confidence in the teacher. Not to know 
what he ought to know in the class room makes the 
teacher nervous, ill at ease, and afraid of the questions 
of his bright pupils. Ignorance of the subject one is 
teaching is safe only in an atmosphere of repression 
and dull sloth. To know his subject permits the teacher, 
unabashed, to answer some questions with a confession 
of ignorance, because as yet nobody knows their answer, 
or, perchance, they are beyond his field. 

It is also true that knowledge of his subject begets 
respect for the teacher from the class, particularly if he 
have a commanding personality. It hurts the influence 



Essential Qualifications of the Teacher 45 

of the teacher to be caught in a mistake when he should 
have known better. Not that the air of infallibihty is 
to be cultivated, but that the subject is so mastered that 
the teacher knows what to say, if he says anything at 
all. One of the sad banes of teaching is the easy 
ability to answer pupils' questions without knowing 
the answer. In subjects requiring muscular skill like 
gymnastics, manual training, music, drawing, it must 
very early become evident that the teacher can really 
do the things he wants the pupils to do. 

One other reason still why it is essential that teachers knowledge 

•' ^ gives Right 

should know their subjects is to be added, especially Perspective, 
for the sake of the pupils, viz. that teachers may know 
what to emphasize and what to omit in a subject. A ; 
lesson is very much like a picture, having a foreground 
and a background. There are essentials to be stressed 
and non-essentials to be passed over Hghtly. The 
framework of the discussion should stand out clearly 
for all ; it may even be written on the board, while many 
things in the text may simply drop into the background 
where they belong. It is the teacher who does not 
know his subject that considers one thing as important 
as another. 
Probably nobody in America believes less in pedagogy Professor 

^ / ,-L , , ^ ^ ^ T \^ Mtinstetberg 

than rroiessor Miinsterberg ; and probably nobody on School 
believes more in reforming our schools than does he. 
He places his emphasis in school reform on the better 
instruction of teachers. He writes:^ ''Just as it has 
been said that war needs three things, money, money, 
and again money, so it can be said with much greater 

^ ''School Reform," Atlantic Monthly^ May, 1900. 



Reform. 



4-6 The Psychological Principles of Education 



The Need of 
Inductive 
and Psycho- 
logical 
Knowledge. 



truth that education needs, not forces and buildings, 
not pedagogy and demonstrations, but only men, men, 
and again men, — without forbidding that some, not 
too many of them, shall be women. . . . No one 
ought to be allowed to teach in the grammar school 
who has not passed through a college or a good normal 
school ; no one ought to teach in a high school who has 
not worked after his college course, at least two years 
in the graduate school of a good university; no one 
ought to teach in a college who has not taken his 
doctor's degree in one of the best universities ; and no 
one ought to teach in a graduate school who has not 
shown his mastery of method by powerful scientific 
pubhcations. We have instead a misery which can be 
characterized by one statistical fact : only two per cent 
of the school teachers possess any degree whatever." 

Having read so far perhaps the resolution is now 
forming in our minds to get hold of the bottom of our 
subjects. If so, let me attempt to say a directing word. 
A text-book knowledge is not enough. It is deductive ; 
it moves from principles to illustrations; it is well 
arranged and classified, and all this is very good. But 
this is not enough. We need to get at the very facts 
that make text-books possible. We want the sources 
of our subject, its growth through the ages, the dis- 
coveries that mark its epochs, its services to man. In 
short, to the logical, deductive, and formal knowledge 
of the subject add the psychological, the inductive, and 
vital. This also helps to give the teacher the learner's 
point of view, who is always advancing in any subject 
from less to more. 



Essential Qualifications of the Teacher 47 

As we pursue an intimate acquaintanceship with that Cautions 
branch of human knowledge we have chosen to teach, Knowied^of 
especially if we are sufficiently grounded in it to be the Subject, 
termed _^speciahsts, it is necessary to add two words of 
caution. We must not neglect the art of teaching and 
we must not lose interest in men. The art of teaching 
requires such a different attitude of mind from the 
original pursuit of knowledge that not many investi- 
gators can teach at all. The investigator is inquiring 
for himself; the teacher is leading the inquiries of 
others. Thus there is a certain self- surrender in 
teaching which great investigators are loath to make. 
And lose not interest in men through absorption in 
things. The personal quality pervades the teaching 
relationship, while investigating pursues an impersonal 
truth. The great scholar finds himself often becoming 
remote from men, as the German lecturer who rushes 
into his room, delivers what he has written, and is gone 
again, without access from his hearers. 

The teacher then must know his subject ; this is his Knowledge 

r ' ^ Tr . a t i -, i of the Pupil. 

tirst essential qualmcation. And he must also know 
his pupils; this is his second essential qualification. 
Now there are two kinds of knowledge of pupils, viz. Kinds. 
of them as individuals, unlike all others, and of them as 
a class, like all others. No two pupils, even twins, are 
exactly ahke ; this is their individuahty. And any two 
pupils, even unrelated by blood or race, are very much 
ahke ; this is their common nature as immature minds 
developing according to certain psychological laws. 
Now our qualification is intended to cover both kinds 



48 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Knowledge 
of Individ- 
uals. 



It magnifies 
Influence. 



of knowledge of pupils; the teacher must know the 
individual pupil, however difficult in large classes, and 
the teacher must know the general pupil, however 
abstract the psychological science that describes him. 

Why must the teacher know the individual pupil? 
There are two elements in the answer. In the first 
place, because no general principle of dealing with 
pupils is exactly apphcable to this individual. Our 
individuality means just this: we cannot be treated 
successfully according to a mechanical pattern. Each 
individual is unique, is one of a kind, is sui generis. 
This variation inherent in individuality demands a 
constant adjustment of principle to personality; it 
makes the schoolroom an organism, not a mechanism. 
So real is the necessity of adapting principles to persons 
that, as we had occasion to see in Chapter I, it has 
been claimed that education can never become a science. 
Though disagreeing with this conclusion, the presence 
of individual variation does mean the omnipresence of 
the art element in putting the science into practice. 
The teacher will find that the best place to learn his 
pupils individually is not in the class room but on the i 
playground, on trips, down the street, and in the 
home. ™ 

This leads to the second consideration why teachers * 
should know their pupils individually. Personal knowl- 
edge gives the teacher pecuHar influence over pupils. 
We all like to be remembered and known by name. 
The teaching relation is at its full power only when 
there is a real person at each end of it. In this con- 
nection teachers may well ponder the incident in which 



Essential Qualifications of the Teacher 49 

Jesus removes the doubt of Nathanael as to whether 
any good thing could come out of Nazareth with those 
words of personal knowledge, "Before Philip called 
thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." 
It is almost sure to be the case that the pupils who give 
us trouble are those we do not really understand. 

A caution must be given also in connection with this Caution con. 
knowledge of the individual pupil. Nobody would Knowledge 
question the position probably that the school exists of the Pupil, 
for the pupil, not the pupil for the school. But the 
school exists for the pupil in his inherent rationaUty, 
not in his caprice. So in knowing and sympathizing 
with the individual pupil, we must not forget nor 
neglect to subject his whims to the law of the school. 
We know him not to weaken him by indulgence, but 
to strengthen him by incentives. 

The teacher must also know the general pupil, that 
is, the laws of development common to all immature 
minds. At this point he draws upon all the sciences 
of young and adolescent life, particularly the science of 
psychology. Upon this point we will reserve further 
remark until the succeeding chapter. 

Knowledge of the subject does not make a teacher, The Ability 
knowledge of the pupil does not make a teacher. Both 
of these combined do not alone make a teacher. There 
must also be the teaching ability. This is a rather 
complex qualification which we must undertake to 
analyze, inquiring first concerning its source. 

The abiHty to teach has its rise in two sources, viz. its two 
heredity and training. The great teacher is born; he 



50 The Psychological Principles of Education 

is also made; but his nature gifts are more important 
than his acquisitions through training. A born teacher 
may succeed without training; a trained teacher can- 
not succeed without native gifts. There are many 
bom teachers, technically untrained, doing successful 
work to-day; there are no successful made teachers. 
The best training can do is to add an increment of 
power to native gifts ; it can never supply the lack of 
those gifts. Pestalozzi the great was nodding when he 
wrote that instruction must be mechanized. The 
teacher's native gifts include such things as tact, 
sympathy with young life, resourcefulness, a sense of 
humor, and buoyant temperament. Such things train- 
ing at most can cultivate, but it can neither give them 
nor take them away. 

What Plato said of oratory can be said of teaching : 
"The perfection of oratory is, or rather must be, like 
the perfection of all things, partly given by nature; 
but this is assisted by art, and if you have the natural 
power, you will be famous as a rhetorician, if you only 
add knowledge and practice, and in either you may fall 
short." (Phaedrus 269 D.) Young persons without 
such native gifts should be discouraged from under- 
taking the profession of teaching. But given them, 
in the interest of fullest efficiency a careful training 
should also be added. 

The training of the teacher consists essentially in the 
knowledge and use of method. Having just indicated 
the superior importance of hereditary gifts, I shall not 
be misunderstood now if I have a good deal to say in 
defence of a rational method of instruction. This is 



Essential Qualifications of the Teacher 51 

one of the weakest spots in both our theory of education 
and our school practice. 

Every teacher should know and use a scientific Knowledge 
method of instruction. And this for two reasons that 
those who inveigh most against method cannot gainsay. 
The first is, some method is unavoidable. In the last 
analysis, method is but the way of doing a thing, and 
all teachers, whether trained or no, have and must 
have some way of setting about their work. In this 
sense, to cast out method in teaching is to cast out 
teaching itself. The second reason is, since method 
of some kind is inevitable, we ought to use the best 
available. The teacher must not excuse his inertia 
in discovering right method by supposing there 
is no right method to discover. When you confess 
failure to yourself in your class-room work, then is the 
time to reexamine your method. 

Now concerning method in teaching: in the large 
there are six kinds, which I will enumerate in pairs. 
General and special method go together as the first pair. General and 
General method is an account of those principles in Method. 
teaching applicable to all subjects alike ; special 
method is an account of those principles in teaching 
applicable to only one subject, as, for example, arith- 
metic. The Herbartian "formal steps in teaching" 
is the most notable illustration of general method. 
There is great need to-day of their revision: first, 
to bring them more into connection with the mind's 
real mode of acquisition, and second, to enable 
them to reach the feelings and will as well as the 
intellect. 



52 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Inductive The second pair of methods is the inductive and 

tiveMefhod. ^^^^ deductive. Inductive method moves from the par- 
ticular instance to the general principle, as in Harper 
and Tolman's " Caesar." Deductive method moves from 
the general principle to its particular application, as in 
geometrical proofs. 
Empirical The third pair of methods is the empirical and the 

Metho^"^'^'' scientific. The empirical method in teaching is due to 
imitation, habit, tradition, accident, or experiment. 
Tis pity 'tis so common. The teacher's golden rule 
has been said to be, teach unto others as others taught 
unto you. Scientific method is due to the union of the 
law in the subject and the law in the mind ; it is based 
on the experience of the race and the applied sciences 
of man. Empirical method is based on limited observa- 
tion, is limited in its application, and is uncertain in 
its conclusions; scientific method is based on wide 
observation, is practically universal in its application, 
and is practically certain in its conclusions. 

From this cursory review of the kinds of method it 
is evident that teachers need to know something about 
both general method and special method in their sub- 
jects; about the relative value and place of the induc- 
tive and deductive methods; and about the nature of 
scientific method. It will also be noted that these 
kinds of method are not intended to be distinct from 
each other ; the following pages, for example, intend to 
include certain things about general, inductive, deduc- 
tive, and scientific method. 

We have said that the knowledge and use of method 
in teaching is one of the elements, though secondary 



Essential Qualifications of the Teacher ^^ 
to native talents, in the ability to teach. It remains Cautions in 

. . the Use of 

here also to add certain cautions about the use of Method. 
method in teaching. First, method is the letter of 
instruction; the teacher is its spirit. Second, method 
should be felt, but not seen, by the class. It is like the 
skeleton in the body, indispensable as an invisible 
support but grewsome in its bareness. Third, method 
must be varied, however good. The best method will 
succumb to regularity and monotony of procedure. 
The teacher's ingenuity is taxed to vary the method 
unfailingly at the right time and in the right way. 

Perhaps the least said about the teacher's charac- TheTeach- 

. . . • 1 . -IT ^'^'s Charac- 

ter, after naming it as essential, is most said. Let ter. 

it be sane, decisive, stable, honest, and righteous.; 
Sanity of character means proportion ; decisiveness of 
character makes the teacher an individual, whose 
position can be understood and has to be reckoned 
with; stability of character raises him above solicita- 
tion; honesty of character hesitates not to condemn 
the poor work of pupils whose feelings he would like 
to shield; and righteousness of character sets eternity 
in his heart. Society will always have its teachers; 
their character should match the permanence of their 
ofj&ce. 

*'The teacher lives forever. On and on 
Through all the generations he shall preach 
The beautiful evangel ; — on and on 
Till our poor race has passed the tortuous years 
That lie fore-reaching the millennium, 
And far into that broad and open sea 



54 The Psychological Principles of Education 

He shall sail, singing still the songs he taught 

To the world's youth, and shall sing them o'er and o'er 

To lapping waters, till the thousand leagues 

Are overpast, — and argosy and crew 

Ride at their port." 

Problems 

1. Other Desirable Qualifications of the Teacher. 

2. The Power of Personality in Teaching. 

3. The Qualities of Jesus as Teacher. 

4. The Characteristics of the Great Historic Teachers. 

References on the Qualifications of the 
Teacher 

Bamett, Common Sense in Education and Teaching, ch. XII. 

Fitch, Lectures on Teaching, pp. 9 et seq. 

Hinsdale, Teaching the Language Arts, ch. XIX. 

Payne, Lectures on the Science and Art of Education, pp. 103-123. 

Tarver, Debateable Claims, chs. VI and VII. 

White, School Management, pp. 17-47. 



CHAPTER V 

THE CONTRIBUTION OF PSYCHOLOGY TO A SCIENCE 
OF EDUCATION 

This is a question now nearly a century old. It was status of the 
present at the birth of modern pedagogy in 1824 when 
Herbart wrote his "Psychology as a Science." During 
recent years it has passed through a polemic stage, led 
by the attack of Professor Miinsterberg upon the 
services of experimental psychology to the teacher. 
That war of words succeeded in sifting rather thoroughly 
the values of psychology for education, and establishing 
some firm results. To-day the question has passed 
into the practical stage; teachers are using their psy- 
chology and psychologists are making contributions to 
pedagogy. 

Looking backward to our last chapter the discussion 
in hand aims to suggest why the teacher should know 
the general pupil, as a part of his essential equipment. 
And looking forward, the following pages of this book 
are our real answer to the question in hand. It re- 
mains only to say here some of those general things 
which there will be illustrated in more detail. 

The uses of psychology for the teacher may be classi- The Uses of 
fied under three general heads, viz. it helps to give him fo7the °^ 
knowledge of his field, it helps to give him the power Teacher, 
that comes from such knowledge, and there are certain 

55 



56 The Psychological Principles of Education 

personal gains. Let us consider each of these in suc- 
cession. 
T?^ ^fw'^' Psychology helps to give the teacher a knowledge of 
Field. his field. His field is consciousness, a developing self- 

consciousness, and his work is the natural forwarding 
of the growth of consciousness. It is the business of 
the psychologist to describe and to explain this same 
consciousness, to provide scientific knowledge concern- 
ing that mental life whose stimulation is the province 
of the teacher. From the psychologist then the teacher 
can get information concerning the nature of his field. 
It is always to be said that this information is scientific, 
that is, descriptive and explanatory, analytic and causal ; 
it is not in its first form applicable to any art, least of 
all the personal art of teaching. In the first instance 
it is just scientific knowledge that the psychologist pro- 
vides the teacher, 'without teUing him what to do with 
it, or how to do it. The omega of psychology is but 
the alpha of pedagogy. The descriptive and explana- 
tory conclusions of psychology must, for the sake of 
service, be transformed into the applicable and practical 
principles of education. I will not illustrate this 
transformation of psychological science into pedagogical 
art at this point, as almost every later chapter in the 
book attempts to do this very thing. The teacher who 
is asked to cultivate the intellect, the feelings, the moral 
and religious nature of pupils can probably do it better 
if he has some definite knowledge at the start of what 
these things may be; certainly he will be somewhat 
more at ease about his work. 

There are five things in particular that will show how 



Psychology and Educational Science 57 

psychology helps to give the teacher a knowledge of The Founda- 
his field. The first is concerned with the foundations Cumazium. 
of the curriculum. A teacher who reads such a volume 
as that of Dr. Harris, "Psychologic Foundations of 
Education," gets a certain view of the origin, nature, 
meaning, and unity of the curriculum. Such knowl- 
edge brings him into better adjustment with his field 
of work, especially if he is stimulated to read further. 

The second is the stages of mental development. The stages 

° ^ of Mental 

The teacher who reads the works of J. M. Baldwin, Deveiop- 
Hall, Preyer, Taylor, Chamberlain, Warner, King, and "^^"^* 
Kirkpatrick, gets a certain view of consciousness in its 
growth, the so-called genetic view, that at once brings 
him into closer touch with the life in his schoolroom, 
and permits him to see that the whole of the human 
race is peering at him through the eyes of a child. 
The third is the description of individual differences, individual 

rry, . .„ . . . . r Differences. 

This matter will m time receive more attention from 
the psychologists. Already we are being told in an 
enhghtening way of the sensory and the motor types, 
of the language and the mathematical minds, of the 
types of imagination, of the differences between boys 
and girls, of the variations in memory, etc. Such work 
will help us in knowing the individual as well as general 
pupil. In illustration I will quote one passage: "To 
a teacher interested in psychology, not as a bookish 
doctrine, but as a thing of flesh and blood, a child who 
cannot learn to spell, should be regarded as a rare and 
inviting individual who may not be dismissed until he 
has yielded up the secret of his defective memory." ^ 

^ Stratton, "Experimental Psychology and Culture," p. 184. 



58 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Special 
Topics. 



Laws of 
Mind. 



The fourth is information concerning certain special 
topics of interest and value to the teacher, such as 
fatigue, the inheritance of mental traits, the distribu- 
tion of mental power in different subjects of the cur- 
riculum, the health of children in the different periods 
of their development, the fears of children, play and 
games, etc. The modern treatment of all these special 
topics goes back to the racial and biological background 
of child-life, and, as the scientists say, interprets ontog- 
eny for us through phylogeny. 

Then, fifth, there are the general laws of mind, in 
accord with which all successful work of the teacher 
must be, whether he knows them technically or not. 
Only if he knows them he is less likely to run counter 
to them. There is the general relation of mind to body, 
the necessity of percepts for concepts, the laws of memory 
and association, the way a habit is formed, the kinds of 
imagination, how to reach a feeling, the indirect way 
of forming the will, and the countless other things that 
are the alphabet of the mind's mode of functioning. 
This is the field of general psychology proper and 
from it the teacher has received most directive assist- 
ance. 



The Power 
of Knowl- 
edge. 



Coupled with the knowledge of his field is the second 
general use of psychology for the teacher, viz. it helps 
to give him the power that comes from such knowledge. 
Since Bacon we are ready to assent to the proposition 
that knowledge is power. He meant by the maxim 
that knowledge of nature is a means of power over her. 
All modem science and the consequent comforts of 



Psychology and Educational Science 59 

living are a tribute to the truth of this utterance. It is 
no less true that a knowledge of mind is a means of 
power over it. In each case the power is dependent 
on the use of the knowledge. For the profession of 
teaching to pass into its comforts and even luxuries, 
not of material but spiritual values, it is only necessary 
that the teachers, or some one for them, point the way 
from theory to practice: from the knowledge of the 
nature of consciousness to the right way of dealing 
with it. Psychology describes how the mind learns, 
it is the business of teaching to cause the mind to learn ; 
psychology describes how the mind appreciates beauty, 
it is the business of teaching to cause the mind to ap- 
preciate beauty; psychology describes how characters 
are formed, it is the business of teaching to assist in 
the formation of character; psychology describes the 
nature of the religious sense, it is the business of teach- 
ing to stimulate the religious sense. Thus psychology 
is one of the sciences of which teaching is the art. 

He who has most tempered American educational 
expectations from psychology, especially of the quan- 
titative, laboratory kind. Professor Miinsterberg, has 
also written: "Teachers ought always to have had con- 
fidence in a sound qualitative psychology. A serious 
understanding of the mental functions certainly will 
help them in their educational work." ^ And the 
head of another large psychological laboratory, a man 
promoting exact research in the field of mind. Professor 
Cattell, reviewing the article of Professor Miinsterberg, 

^ Atlantic Monthly, February, 1898, "A Danger from Experi- 
mental Psychology." 



6o The Psychological Principles of Education 



The Princi- 
ples of 
Educating. 



Direction to 
Native Tact. 



writes in a way commanding general assent, ''T think 
that psychology has much the same relation to the pro- 
fession of the teacher as physiology has to medicine." ^ 

There are two things in particular that will show 
how psychology helps to give the teacher this power 
in his work. The first is, the laws of mind furnish the 
principles of educating. If physiological psychology, 
for example, discloses as a law that instincts ripen and 
decay, pedagogy demands that desirable instincts as 
they come on be fixed into habits before they pass 
away. If general psychology, to take another instance, 
discloses as a law that the pursuit of an interest is a 
factor in individual development, pedagogy at once 
demands that school work at some point discover to 
a pupil his real interests. Probably no American psy- 
chologist is more cautious in his methods or temperate 
in his conclusions, or critical of psychological extrava- 
gances than Professor Jastrow, who, reviewing Hall's 
"Adolescence," writes, "Thus psychology — properly 
interpreted as the study of the evolution of mental 
function — at once appraises the value of mental 
traits, and in recovering the trade-routes of the past, 
points to the most profitable highways of the future. 
Psychology of this type and temper remains the supreme 
guide of education." ^ 

The second thing is that, while not taking their place 
ever, nor the place of practical experience, psychology 
gives native tact and skill their best opportunity. Sympa- 



^ Psychological Review, 1898, p. 413. 
^ Jastrow, "The Natural History 
Science Monthly ^ March, 1905. 



of Adolescence," Popular 



Psychology and Educational Science 6i 

thy and insight, these are indeed inborn and indispensable 
for the teacher. However great they may naturally be, 
knowledge will make them greater. They are original, 
they are primary, knowledge of all psychology cannot 
take their place, but they are most efficient when 
knowledge is their guide. To understand pupils opens 
up channels for sympathy. ' ' A Pheidias does not despise 
learning the principles necessary to the mastery of his 
art, nor a Beethoven disregard the knowledge requisite 
for the complete technical skill through which he gives 
expression to his genius. In a sense it is true that the 
great artist is born, not made; but it is equally true 
that a scientific insight into the technics of his art helps 
to make him. And so it is with the artist teacher." ^ 

It was said that the third great use of psychology to Personal 
the teacher was certain personal gains. In the first 
place it is to be remarked that, as in the case of other 
sciences, here is a body of knowledge that is worth 
while for its own sake. Since the importance attached Truth for 
by Plato and Aristotle to knowledge as such, to a vision 
of the truth anywhere, only a practical age has demanded 
applications. Ours is eminently a practical age, due 
in scientific realms to the biological recognition that 
consciousness is primarily teleOlogical. In such a 
time it is preeminently good for us to love some knowl- 
edge for its own sake and not because we are planning 
to use it to-morrow. This attitude makes the investi- 
gator's life worth while. He does not know and does 
not care whether what true thing he finds will prove 

* McLellan and Dewey, "Psychology of Number," p. 6. 



62 The Psychological Principles of Education 



useful. He is seeking the truth because he loves it, 
and in the light of the truth he finds the generations 
walk. So is the teacher who, according to his oppor- 
tunity, is becoming a master of mind for its own sake. 

In the second place, and coming to practice again, 
The Analytic psychology dcvclops an analytic power in dealing with 
mental material of immense service in the work of 
clear teaching. No teacher can attain a first-rate suc- 
cess who is without the ability to introduce sharp 
distinctions into a complex whole. His subject must 
lie in his own mind in its variety as well as in its unity. 
Step by step, he must initiate his pupils into its mys- 
teries, ending up with an illuminating total vision. 
Similarly psychology leads the teacher to view mind as 
a unity with a variety of functions. He gets the notion 
that is the way reality is ; he is led to apply the notion to 
his own subject. The making of close psychological 
distinctions clear to himself is an aid to him in making 
similar distinctions in his subject clear to his class. 

In the third place, psychology aids the teacher in 
rationalizing his experience. The light that it casts 
permits distinctions to be drawn in the daily occurrences 
between the haphazard and the real, the non-essential 
and the essential. Values begin to get adjusted in the 
teacher's view of his class, and the sporadic is dis- 
tinguishable from the racial. Through psychology the 
teacher's work will continually have a diagnosis of 
pupils in the background, and the teacher himself will 
increasingly become an expert physician of mind. 

And the fourth personal gain is dehverance from the 
latest educational devices. Through psychology every 



The Ration- 
alizing of 
Experience. 



An Educa- 
tional Critic. 



Psychology and Educational Science 6^ 

teacher is to some extent his own educational critic. 
He does not have to wait for editorial expression from 
his favorite educational periodical ; he sees for himself 
the limitations and the possible services of a new 
pedagogical method. He no longer discards the old 
because it is old, nor adopts the new because it is new ; 
he keeps and accepts both old and new according as 
they are grounded in the laws of the constitution of 
mind. Of course all these personal gains are relative 
to the amount of time the teacher can give to his psy- 
chology, his ability in it, and his capacity to see its 
bearings on practical problems. 

This discussion must be concluded with certain clear 
cautions concerning the use of psychology in teaching. Cautions. 
already hinted at indeed in the foregoing. The first is 
that it is the psychology of the growing, not the grown. The Growing 
mind that teachers most need to know. The propor- 
tions of adult and youthful bodies do not vary more than 
those of adult and youthful minds. A besetting mis- 
take of the teacher is to make pupils take his own adult 
point of view instead of making himself take their 
youthful points of view. Pause, gentle and faithful 
teacher, as you read, and think three minutes of how 
you can take your pupils' points of view. 

The second caution is that teachers most need Practical 
practical, not theoretical, nor experimental, psychology. 
They need not so much the theoretic account of the 
nature of mind as the practical way of deahng with it 
which this theory suggests. To the ambitious teacher 
with high standards to attain, the profession is exacting, 



Psychology. 



64 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Exact 
Information. 



The Teach- 
ing Attitude. 



and the time allottable to psychology, though brief, 
must count. Drop the psychology any page of which 
you light upon does not tell you something worth 
while. 

My third caution is that a little exact statistical in- 
vestigation among your own pupils is of more value to 
you than much reliance upon respected educational 
opinion. Is it true that some of your pupils have 
mathematical, and others Hnguistic, minds? If so, 
is it true that the boys predominate among the former 
and the girls among the latter? Is it true that your 
pupils are working for marks, prizes, and promotion 
rather than for the sake of the subject and interest in 
study? Such investigations make your psychology 
concrete ; they give the sense of reality to what you read 
in the books, and one such usually leads to another. 
Remember that the opinions you read are themselves 
based on just such investigations, or some lesser founda- 
tion. 

After saying this, my last caution is particularly 
needed. It is, the teacher must not take the psychologi- 
cal, which is the analytic, the simply observing and 
explaining, attitude toward his pupils, — they are not 
specimens. The sweet and beautiful soul of Helen 
Keller has been made to feel that the psychologists too 
often regard her as only a wonderful subject for in- 
vestigation and explanation. In contrast the teacher's 
attitude is always real, vital, sympathetic, personal. 
Whatever psychologizing the teacher does in his class 
room must be in the background of his consciousness; 
not once must a single pupil feel himself impaled and 



Psychology and Educational Science 65 

subject to the intellectual analysis of his teacher. 
The teaching relation permits the use, but never the 
discovery, of psychological truth. 

It is not too much to hope that through the knowledge 
and use of psychology, and the kindred human sciences, 
the regeneration of education is to come. 

Problems 

1. The Sciences Important for Educational Practice. 

2. The Investigation of Social School Problems. 

3. The Use of Statistical Methods. 

4. The Acquisition of a Working Knowledge of Psychology. 

References on Psychology and Teaching 

Bain, Education as a Science, ch. III. 

Boone, Science of Education, ch. XIX. 

Dewey, Ed. Rev.y Vol. 13, pp. 356-369; Ed. Rev., Vol. 16, pp. 

1-14; Psych. Rev., Vol. 7, pp. 105-124. 
Herbart, Science of Education, Introduction. 
James, Talks to Teachers, ch. I. 
Laurie, Institutes of Education, Part II. 
McLellan and Dewey, Psychology of Number, ch. I. 
Miinsterberg, Psychology and Life, pp. ioa-144. 
Rosenkranz, Philosophy of Education, pp. 76-105. 
Spencer, Education, I. 
Sully, The Teacher's Handbook of Psychology, ch. I; Ed. Rev., 

Vol. IV, pp. 313 ff. 
Thorndike, Elements of Psychology, pp. 325-327; Educational 
• Psychology, passim. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE THEORY OF FORMAL DISCIPLINE 

No extended reference to the science of education, 
and no discussion of the appHcations of psychology to 
teaching, must fail to-day to take account of the pressing 
question of formal discipline. To consider it here will 
give us the right point of view from which to approach 
the later inquiries in this volume, and any conclusions 
there reached are to be interpreted in the light of this 
discussion. The immediately following pages cover a 
pedagogical battle-ground; the war has been waging 
for nearly a generation now, and the victory is not yet 
won. What is the question itself? 
The Theory If we turn for an authoritative answer to Professor 
De Garmo's article on "Formal Culture" in Baldwin's 
"Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology," we find 
the following definition, "The doctrine of the applica- 
bility of mental power, however gained, to any depart- 
ment of human activity." Perhaps the idea would be 
expressed should we say, the theory of formal discipHne 
asserts that mental power developed in one subject is 
usable in any other. Once sharpen the intellectual axe 
and it is good for cutting any kind of wood; once 
develop mental muscle and it is good for Ufting any 
burden ; once go through the gymnasium for the mind 
and you are ready for the tasks of life. 



Stated. 



66 



i 



The Theory of Formal Discipline 67 

The historic and contemporary repute of this theory its Past and 
of education needs little comment. Perhaps we were standing. 
all reared in its atmosphere. It has had a long, dig- 
nified, and conspicuous place in educational theory, 
from the perfection in formahsm of the mediaeval great 
systems of knowledge to the latest modern opposition 
to the introduction into the curriculum of ''fads, frills, 
and fancies." It has been one of the ideals of educa- 
tion. Those old ones whom we call the schoolmen had 
it, the Latin, Greek, and mathematics of the English 
schools and universities presuppose it, the German 
gymnasien intend it, the three R's and the four walls 
of the district and elementary schools suggest it, and 
all that advocacy of education as a training for the mind 
implies it. The theory has the widest prevalence in 
teaching circles to-day ; practically all the teachers com- 
mit themselves to it one way or another, and speakers 
on educational programmes may usually be counted upon 
to defend such subjects as grammar, spelling, arith- 
metic, the ancient languages, etc., because of their 
" superior disciphnary power. " We may even go further 
and say, counting heads alone, most educational 
theorists imply, if they do not directly affirm, the truth 
of the doctrine. Some of the leaders, however, who 
have given especial attention to the matter, are taking 
new positions. 

There are certain weighty and not wholly answerable Objections 

11 . . , . . - r^, to the Theory 

arguments agamst the theory m its historic form. The in its Historic 
first is, it rests upon an antiquated psychology, the so- ^°^™- 
called "faculty psychology." According to this psy- 



68 The Psychological Principles of Education 



An Anti- 
quated 
Psychology. 



Mistaken 
Analogies. 



chology the mind was composed of so many faculties 
or powers, such as perception, memory, judgment, 
reasoning, etc., and in accord with this notion of mind 
the theory of formal discipline held that if a faculty 
were once trained, it was good for any service. Thus 
the language drill was said to be good in training the 
memory, mathematics for the reasoning power, etc. At 
this point it is serviceable to our later discussion to note 
that the old faculty psychology and the historic theory 
of formal discipline founded upon it did not admit of 
the possibility of training one faculty, for example 
perception, by training another, for example reason; 
that is, it was not the mind that was really trained, but 
only its faculties. To-day in scientific circles the 
functional psychology, affirming the unity of mind as it 
adjusts itself variously to different situations, has sup- 
planted the former faculty psychology. Functional 
psychology, affirming that mind is developed through 
adjustment to given situations, knows nothing of a 
mental power thoroughly detachable from the place of 
its origin and perfectly applicable to a different set of 
conditions. 

Second, the historic theory rests upon mistaken 
analogies. Axes and muscles make mechanical ad- 
justments to their objects; the mind makes vital 
adjustment. In a mechanical adjustment there is 
always a dualism, the axe and the wood it cuts are two 
things. In a vital adjustment there is always a unity, 
the mind is fed by the problem it solves and turns with 
relish to similar problems. To each distinct situation 
the reactions of mind and brain are unique. 



The Theory of Formal Discipline 69 

Third, historically the doctrine was rather taken for Assumed 
granted than scrutinized, criticised, and accepted. 
When modern knowledge and life grew away from the 
mediaeval curriculum, it became necessary either to 
incorporate the new knowledge into the curriculum or 
to justify the continuance of an unmodified curriculum ; 
the theory of formal discipline served the purpose of 
this justification; it has never been supported by exact 
evidence. 

Fourth, the wide prevalence of the theory to-day in "Social 

^ ^ -^ Heredity.' 

its historic form is due mainly to "social heredity," that 
is, to imitation and suggestion^ The busy teachers who 
hold and defend it have not first doubted, then ex- 
amined, then accepted it; to them it is Hke Antonio's 
feeling of sadness, — how they found it, caught it, 
came by it, what stuff 'tis made of, whereof 'tis born, 
they are to learn. 
Fifth, it contradicts common experience. A man's Against 

, . . , ,.-.,. , Common 

judgment is notoriously unequal m familiar and un- Experienc 
famiUar matters. He may be as quick as a race-horse 
in matters, say, of Biblical criticism, and as slow as an 
ox in the philosophical problem of immortality. It is 
a saying with some jurists that a man trained in exact 
scientific and mathematical methods cannot make a 
great lawyer where the issue is not one of certainty 
but of probability. Men may be grouped accord- 
ing to their efficiency in certain subjects, and effi- 
ciency in one field does not mean efficiency in another. 
There is a logical fallacy, argumentum ad verecun- 
diam, which consists in appealing to authority outside 
of the field in question. The same boys may be 



7o The Psychological Principles of Education 

better in their mathematics than in language, and 
the same girls may be better in language than in 
mathematics. Here the mental power in one sub- 
ject is not the same in another, the "all 'round mind'* 
is a myth. 
Against Sixth, if more were necessary, the theory in its his- 

Experimen- • r ^ "^ 

tai Evidence, toric form contradicts experimental evidence. Try 
your mathematical reasoners on a series of life- 
problems, as how best to spend one's money, one's 
time, choose one's associates, etc., and be surprised that 
some of the first are last and some of the last are first. 
Try to improve your own power for remembering any- 
thing now difficult to you, such as names, dates, poetry, 
by committing nonsense syllables. Or, shorter, imagine 
yourself now testing your judgment, admittedly good 
in matters of teaching, on the relative merits of two 
horses or the relative values of two farms. If still 
unconvinced, read some of the experimental results 
referred to in the list at the close of this chapter, and 
you may end by almost, if not quite, agreeing with the 
results of the bold and acute Thorndike as he writes, 
"... there is always a point . . . beyond which the in- 
fluence of the training has not extended." ^ It would 
be correct to say that all the theorists who have in- 
vestigated the question reject the doctrine in its historic 
form. 

The Pro- jg there no truth at all then in the theory, but all mis- 

fication. take and delusion? I think not. These objections do 

demand that the historic form of the theory be modi- 

* Thorndike, "Educational Psychology," p. 91. 



The Theory of Formal Discipline 71 

fied; they do not demand that it be given up in toto. 
The modification necessary would appear, as it seems 
to me, in the following statement of principle, viz. 
jiC^ mental power developed in one subject is applicable 
to any other in direct proportion to their similarity. 
Though stated in exact mathematical form, it is not 
possible, because of the complexity of the subject, to 
demonstrate its exact truth; but that it has a con- 
siderable degree of probability can be shown. 

The principle means, the greater the similarity between 
two subjects, the greater the applicability of mental 
power developed in one to the other ; the less the simi- 
larity, the less the applicability. Now it requires no 
great amount of common insight or metaphysical acumen 
to see that, given the same person, with the same eyes, 
ears, hands, and brain at work, any two subjects, 
situations, or activities are in some respects similar, 
and they are also in some respects dissimilar. This 
means there is always some mental power transferable 
from subject to subject, though it may be infinitesimal 
if the subjects are widely dissimilar; also that there is 
never such transfer without loss, though the loss may 
be negligible if the subjects are very similar. This is 
the meaning of the proposed modification; it holds 
there is an element of truth in the old theory of formal 
discipline, but not so much truth as its adherents have 
supposed. Perhaps the simple statement of the pro- 
posed modification carries conviction in itself without 
argument; if so, the reader may pass at once to the 
next chapter. The rest of us must tarry with the 
defence of the modifying principle. 



72 The Psychological Principles of Education 



To show 
Transfer of 
Function. 



Similarity of 
Subjects. 



Common 
Experiences. 



We have to show that the historic theory of formal 
discipline is right in saying that what we may call in 
modern terms a transfer of function is possible, but wrong 
in saying the transfer is possible without loss. The 
presuppositions of our defence are a unitary conscious- 
ness, its functional unity with its object, and the so- 
called doctrine of localization of function in the brain, 
whereby specific portions of it are given over to specific 
sensory and motor processes. 

To show first, there is some transfer of function, that 
is, there is some transmission of power developed in 
one situation to another situation. Beginning from 
the objective side of the process, it is to be observed, 
first, that any two courses of study or activities are in 
some respects similar, ranging from practical identity 
to almost total dissimilarity. Two courses in language, 
or hterature, or mathematics, or history, have many 
points in common, while two courses in literature and 
mathematics, in grammar and history, in spelling and 
nature- study, have many points of dissimilarity. Be- 
cause of this similarity in the objective situations, 
always present in some degree, we should expect a 
corresponding transfer of function. 

Second, this transfer of function between similar 
subjects is exactly what common experience verifies. 
The boy good in mathematics is usually good in physics, 
and later in astronomy. The boy good in nature-study 
is usually good in botany, biology, physiology, and later 
in psychology. The girl good in Enghsh is usually 
good in French, and, as the studies should perhaps be 
arranged; later in Latin. I The possibility of this transfer 



The Theory of Formal Discipline 73 

of function between similar activities is the basis of all 
professional school work, where moot courts make the 
future lawyer, dissections the future doctor, homiletics 
the future minister, class practice the future teacher, 
economics the future business man, etc. 

Third, viewing the process from the subiective side identical 

. . , , , . r 1 . , . , Cerebral 

of mmd and bram, there are always some identical Elements, 
elements involved in any two mental occupations or 
train functions. The brain, despite locaHzation of 
functions, acts as a unity. Its unitary action makes 
possible its service as the organ of a unitary conscious- 
ness; a brain divided in its action means a multiple 
personality. Flechsig states the principle that *' cerebral 
energy, like water, tends to find its level. '^ It means 
that when an activity has fatigued its own portion of 
the brain, its continuance withdraws energy from, and 
so fatigues, other portions. However dissimilar the 
situations or activities, the association centres would 
be active in each, perhaps also the sight, hearing, 
speech, and motor centres. This means that training 
in one situation makes performance easier in another, 
because of the identical brain elements involved. 
Fourth, it may be that nature has endowed the General 

Instincts 

nervous system with general instincts, and that man 
may endow his own system with generalized habits. 
If so, the transfer of function would be another case of 
the same type. To take the case of imitation as a 
general instinct. Children early begin to show the 
instinct of imitation. Perhaps the instinct is particu- 
larly set going by stimuli of a rhythmic or playful 
character. But the point is that the tendency to 



74 The Psychological Principles of Education 

imitate seems independent of any particular stimulus or 
class of stimuli, but is ready to go off at any imitable 
model whatsoever. Do or say anything that you choose, 
and your three-year-old child will usually imitate you. 
Here apparently is what we may call a generalized 
instinct. Similarly it is impossible to say in advance 
what particular things will arouse the child's instinct of 
fear or pugnacity. Apparently they exist in the nervous 
system as what we may call generalized racial habits, 
and Habits. What nature has done for the race as generalized 
instincts, man can in a way do for himself as generalized 
habits. There seem to be habits of doing as well as 
habits of deeds. Thus one may be in the habit of 
disagreeing with the expressed opinion of another, 
whatever that happens to be. Or one may inadvertently 
fashion a wrong plural with " s, " as " foots." Professor 
Royce ^ instances ''fickleness" as a generalized habit. 
All of our higher types of thinking seem to indicate 
the presence of a basic habit of mind, and the prose 
style of an author, regardless of the subject, bears the 
stamp of certain generalized forms. Once to have writ- 
ten a book seems to leave the mind stocked with vacant 
forms of expression ready to be filled with words and 
meanings appropriate to the next discussion. Once to 
have read an author consecutively stocks the mind 
with his forms of style, which almost inevitably betray 
their presence in one's own next writing. These all seem 
to show generalized habits. There is a good deal of 
uncertainty yet attaching to generalized instincts and 
habits ; they need a careful monographic study. But 

* " Outlines of Psychology," p. 69. 



The Theory of Formal DiscipHne 75 

if the nervous system does indeed admit of the formation 
of such generaHzed tendencies of discharge, then we may 
legitimately conclude that habits of voluntary atten- 
tion, doing one's duty, promptitude, accuracy, indus- 
try, and the like, once formed in any connection, are 
at least somewhat serviceable in other connections. 

Fifth, the experimental evidence is clearly in favor Experimen- 
of a partial transfer of function. Skill developed in 
one hand is partially transferable to the other hand, 
and even to the feet. The increase in sensitiveness of 
the skin to two compass points felt as two developed 
at one place by practice is partially transferable to other 
portions of the body, especially to corresponding portions 
on the other half. The strength developed by exercise 
in the right arm of the blacksmith goes over in part to 
the left also, and the man using his arms in rowing is 
also giving strength to his legs. Some of these results 
may not be precisely pertinent to the issue. For de- 
tails I must refer the reader to the literature of the 
subject, and be content here to quote the conclusion 
of one investigator. ''The real question is not, 'Does 
improvement in one function alter others?' but 'To 
what extent and how does it?' 

"The answer which I shall try to defend is that a 
change in one function alters any other only in so far 
as the two functions have as factors identical elements. 
... By identical elements are meant mental processes 
which have the same cell action in the brain as their 
physical correlate." ^ 

1 Thorndike, "Educational Psychology," pp. 80, 81. Cf. the 
literature reviewed by Thorndike in this connection. 



76 The Psychological Principles of Education 
To show xhe second part of our thesis, that there is always 

Loss in the . . . ^ . 

Transferor loss iH the transfer of function proportionate to the 
Function. dissimilarity of the two given situations, will need 
only brief defence. All the arguments above against 
the theory of formal discipline in its historic form 
have place here. Also, any two subjects or activities 
are dissimilar in some respects. This means there 

yare always some non-identical brain cells involved 
in any two functions; a new situation always requires 
a new adjustment which is not so easy as an habitual 
one. Thus there are limits to Flechsig's principle. 
Not all cerebral energy can be drafted off in one direc- 
tion, as all the water can pour through a leaky bucket. 
However fatigued you may be in one subject, you are 
not quite so much so when another is taken up. The 
boy half asleep over his Caesar may suddenly awake 
with his algebra. You can never use in one situation 
/^all you have gained in another. The localization of 
brain paths responsible for specific habits also means 
that transfers are costly. Even the generalized habit 
is never quite so applicable in another subject as in the 
one in which it was formed. 

Watch yourselves, teachers; nobody has the habit 
of promptness developed stronger than you, developed 
in you by attendance upon your school duties ; but how 
are you as to promptness when it is a question of at- 
tendance upon teachers' meetings, committee meetings, 
appointments, and church ? I once heard a prominent 
teacher of mathematics give as his excuse for keeping 
the company waiting for his paper half an hour that 
he had misread the time on the programme; then he 



J 



The Theory of Formal Discipline 77 

presented his paper in defence of mathematics as 
affording superior training in accuracy. The worst of 
it was nobody seemed to notice the incongruity. 

There are certain practical conclusions from this Practical 

. Conclusions. 

largely theoretical mquiry which we must not miss. 
The first is, there is an element of truth in the historic 
theory of formal discipline, but it is not the whole 
truth. 

The second is, formal education is an uneconomical 
way of fitting for life, as there is always loss in the 
transfer.^ 

The third is, the economical way of educating is to 
put the life situations and the life occupations into the 
school. This would mean less of the formal studies 
like grammar and arithmetic, and more of the real 
studies like nature work, literature, and history. As 
Professor O'Shea observes in his illuminating discussion 
of formal discipline, "An individual should be required 
to perform during his learning period those activities 
which he will be called upon to perform most often in 
maturity." ^ 

The fourth is, there should be in the curriculum a 
prescribed culture element for leisure in life, and an 
elective practical element for work in life. As members 
of society are men as well as workmen, the curriculum 
should be cultural as well as utilitarian. The individu- 
al's power is developed through pursuit of his interest ; 
such a curriculum will at some one point, or perhaps 
two, reveal the pupil to himself. 

And the fifth is, both formal and real studies must 
^ "Education as Adjustment," p. 265. 



7^ The Psychological Principles of Education 

not rely solely on their habit-fo?ming power, but should 
also aim to give ideas and principles of action. When 
your habit of promptness will not take you to a commit- 
tee meeting on time, the principle of respect for the 
time of others will. Formal logic, to take a typical 
instance, makes you think clearly in it; it does not as 
such make your thinking clear everywhere; it does 
give you the idea that clear thinking is worth striving 
for everywhere. Or again. West Point makes brave 
soldiers, not by the cowardly habits of hazing, surely, 
but by the instillation of the idea of bravery, facing 
the foe, standing by your guns, die fighting, etc. In 
the end, effort is the secret of attainment ; once the idea 
is firmly lodged in pupil or teacher, " I will not go down 
in defeat," ^'I will not lower my standards," ^'I will be 
just to myself and merciful to others," or the like, and 
a worthy issue is assured. 

Summary. Here wc Conclude our introductory sketch of a 

science of education. We have seen the possibility of 
a normative science of education, the indispensable part 
that the history of education plays in the formation of 
such a science, the comprehensiveness of the educational 
ideal, the qualifications of the teacher regarded as es- 
sential in the fulfilment of his task, the many services 
rendered him by psychology, and the modification neces- 
\ sary in the historic theory of formal discipline. The 
general impression left by the discussion perhaps is that 
the science of education exists non in esse sed in posse. 

The Coming We must now turn from the theory of the science of 
education to such practical illustrations as we are able 
to give. The remainder of the book must consider what 



The Theory of Formal Discipline 79 

the education of children and youth ought to be. Its 
parts are suggested by the threefold nature of the mind, 
viz. the intellectual, the emotional, and the moral, and 
by the relationship of mind as a unit to divinity, the 
spiritual. The respective ideals of these parts are the 
knowledge of the true, the appreciation of the beautiful, 
the willing of the good, and the experience of the 
Divine. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Faculty Psychology. 

2. The Functional Psychology. 

3. Generalized Instincts and Habits. 

4. The LocaHzation of Function. 

References on the Theory of Formal Discipline 

Bain, Education as a Science, pp. 139-142, 366-373. 
Bain, Practical Essays, IV. 

Baker, " Educational Values," Proc. N. E. A., 1895. 
Hanus, Educational Aims and Educational Values, I. 
Hinsdale, " DiscipHnary Studies," Proc. N. E. A., 1894. 
Hinsdale, " The Dogma of Formal Discipline," Ed. Rev., Vol. 8. 
Lewis, " Formal Discipline," School Rev., 1905. 
Monroe, Text -book in the History of Education, ch. IX. 
O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, ch. IV, §4; chs. XIII and XIV. 
Thorndike, Educational Psychology, ch. VIII. 
Tompkins, Philosophy of Teaching, pp. 265-267. 
Youmans, Culture demanded by Modern Life, ch. I. 



PART II 

INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION, 
OR EDUCATING THE MIND TO KNOW 



INTRODUCTION 

Intellectual education may be defined as the The General 

. Nature of 

development of the mmd s power to know the trutii. intellectual 
The intehect is that instrument of consciousness whereby Education. 
we get knowledge. And knowledge, praised by prophet, 
poet, and sage ahke, we may think of as content of 
consciousness descriptive of fact. The great goal and 
object of knowledge is truth; it is the truth that we 
know, and truth we may think of as the relation- 
ship of harmony between the subjective thought and 
the objective fact. Where the truth is known there is 
no conflict between what is thought and what is so. 
It is the mind that knows the truth; the knowing is 
a function of mind; the truth is that which occupies 
the knowing, as its object. This distinction between 
knowledge and truth may be briefly stated in the 
form, knowledge is the subject of truth, truth i& the 
object of knowledge. 

From these deep and vague considerations there ^^^ Two Pri- 

- . „ 11- mary Aims. 

emerge the two primary aims of intellectual education ; 
viz. to develop the mind's power to know, and in some 
measure to acquaint it with the truth. The former 
aim develops a capacity, the latter aim indicates an 
acquisition. Of these two aims the former is doubtless 
more important to realize in school ; the power to pursue 
the truth through life is better than to begin Hfe with a 

83 



84 The Psychological Principles of Education 

certain quantity of known truth. Too frequently the 
latter aim has ecHpsed the former; knowledge was com- 
municated, but the power to know remained dormant. 
Its Order. Now there are certain fairly marked stages in the de- 

velopment of the mind's power to know — a beginning, 
a long middle, and an end. These stages are not sep- 
arable from each other by years and days ; they merge 
gradually into each other, and in the growth the earlier 
stages are carried forward into the later, even as man's 
body bears about it the signs of its great past. If we 
should name the successive stages in the intellectual 
development of the race or the individual, they would 
appear in some such order as this : sensation, perception, 
memory, imagination, conception, judgment, and reason- 
ing. Following perception there is apperception, which 
is rather a process of, than a period in, intellectual de- 
velopment. Sensation, then, is the alpha, and reasoning 
is the omega of knowing. To assist the mind through 
each one of these natural stages of the development of 
its power to know is evidently the function which in- 
tellectual education has to discharge. Here, then, too, 
we find the order our discussion must follow, beginning 
with sensation. 



CHAPTER VII 

OPENING THE WINDOWS OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

Under this figure we mean educating the senses.. 
To begin with, the windows of the child's mind at 
birth are almost all closed ; its senses are but just oper- 
ative, and not much of the great world can make its 
appeal to consciousness and deliver its messages. The 
educated mind needs to have all the windows open. 

Under the phrase, "educating the senses," a miscon- J^eamngof 

^ ' ° ' Educating 

ception frequently lurks. The phrase does not mean the Senses. 
training the sense-organs to efficiency. This is not 
our work, but nature's, and if nature has not done it, 
not the teacher but the ocuHst or the otologist must 
assist her. It often takes nature several generations 
to remove color-blindness or deafness. But the phrase 
means educating the mind to the best use of the sense- 
organs. The man who, in popular language, has his 
senses trained is he who has an attentive appreciation 
of sense- reports, understanding their significance. He 
sees and hears what escapes the usual eye and ear 
through inattention or lack of discrimination. It 
would marvellously surprise any of us to have the 
consciousness of the naturalist for five minutes in the 
midst of the wood. We lack his interests, his under- 
standing of all the signs, and his discrimination between 
this and that. 

85 



86 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Why 
educate 
the Senses? 



Habits of 
Observation. 



Broader 
Intelligence. 



Natural 
Beginning 
of Science. 



Why educate the senses? Many answers might be 
given to this question, a few of which will deepen our 
sense of the importance of beginning intellectual edu- 
cation at the bottom. First, then, thereby habits of 
observation, alertness, wide-awakeness, are helped to 
be formed. There is a great difference between the 
mind eager to learn from every new environment and 
one that shuts itself up like a clam in every new situa- 
tion. We are primarily meant to look outward and 
not inward, to be a friend and not a stranger to our 
world. As a great physicist once remarked to me, 
"It is necessary that pupils, at some time, learn to 
observe something, and minutely." 

Second, thereby richer knowledge and a broader 
intelligence are made possible, a richer knowledge for 
sensations are the stuff from which knowledge of the 
external world grows, a broader intelligence for it 
looks out upon every expanse of nature that is allowed. 
Make the foundations in sensation broad and deep if 
the superstructure of knowledge is to be rehable and 
majestic. 

Third, thereby the beginning of any objective science 
is made natural, easy, and interesting. And the child 
lives in the realm of the objective. An introspective 
child is morbid, a child desiring to be taken out of 
itself is an anomaly. The knowledge of the external 
world precedes that of the internal, things engaging 
us before the self. The child wants his natural history ; 
he needs and wants the acquaintanceship with things, 
and he can get these only through the senses. 

Fourth, thereby a foundation is laid for a future 



opening the Windows of Consciousness 87 

development of an aesthetic taste and the appreciation Foundation 
of the beautiful. Unlike truth, beauty makes a sensible 
appeal : she clothes herself with garments of the physical 
world, she is visible or audible. No lover of beauty 
has the windows of his consciousness closed and the 
shades drawn. The appreciation of the beautiful 
ought to be a part of the equipment of every educated 
consciousness. Coming from the general to the par- 
ticular, it almost goes without saying that educating 
the senses is indispensable for that pupil who may later 
become an architect, sculptor, painter, poet, or musi- 
cian. These all revel in Knes, curves, colors, and sounds. 

And fifth, thereby the pupil is helped into the pos- Rounded 
session of all his powers. To get a sensation and ment. 
comprehend it is one of his powers; not to get the 
sensations we might is to be isolated from a portion of 
nature's reahty. And to be handicapped in our sen- 
sational beginnings is to be handicapped all along the 
line of later intellectual development. Begin at the 
bottom, but do not stay there, is our general guide in 
developing the intellect. There are types of knowledge 
sensational neither in origin nor in character, as the 
following chapters will show us, but here we must 
affirm that all knowledge of the external world so dear 
to the child's heart originates in a sensation. 

So important a matter as educating the senses can- 
not have escaped the notice of the wise teachers of 
men, as the following quotations will illustrate. The 
Moravian bishop, Comenius, who, according to Cotton 
Mather, was once invited "to illuminate the presidency 
of our college" (Harvard), writes on this subject: 



88 The Psychological Principles of Education 

"The foundation of all knowledge consists in correctly 
representing sensible objects to our senses so that they 
can be comprehended with facility." And Rousseau, 
the prophet of naturalism in education, writes: "The 
first faculties which are formed and perfected in us are 
the senses. These, then, are the first which should be 
cultivated ; but these are the very ones that we forget, 
or that we neglect the most." And that priest of pure 
reason, Immanuel Kant, writes in a famous passage: 
"How is it possible that the faculty of cognition should 
be awakened into exercise otherwise than by means of 
objects which affect our senses?" Let me conclude 
these quotations with Professor Sully, who early in his 
psychological work began to write helpful words for 
teachers: "Distinct and sharply defined sense-impres- 
sions are the first conditions of clear imagination and 
exact thinking." 



How 
educate 
the Senses ? 



The 

Objective 

Method. 



From all these words bringing with us the feeling of 
the importance of the topic in hand, we may next raise 
the practical and none too easy question, how edu- 
cate the senses ? 

In the first place, utilize the objective method of 
teaching. The sense-basis of knowledge of the ex- 
ternal world demands the sense- basis of teaching the 
facts of the external world. Indeed, even in teaching 
the facts of the internal or conscious world it is most 
profitable to use sensible illustrations where they do not 
positively mislead. Old Dr. Coit used to remark, I 
believe, that he would not teach theology without a 
blackboard. So far as possible under the limitations 



opening the Windows of Consciousness 89 

of the subject taught, all teaching should be objective in 
character, appealing to consciousness through the sen- 
sations. It is interesting physiologically that the optic 
nerve is as large as all the other afferent nerves com- 
bined, yet teachers rely almost entirely upon the audi- 
tory nerve, handling gingerly chalk and things. Books 
and talk are too exclusively our tools. As a certain 
Cuban remarked of a bright American girl whom he 
had but recently met, "Too much language." Show 
the objects of which you speak. Let there be demon- 
stration. When the thing itself cannot possibly be ob- 
tained, recourse must be had to pictures, stereopticons, 
casts, drawings, models, and, best of all, travel. I 
know of a book course in botany where the members of 
the class did not see a plant until the final examination. 
This is not you, faithful reader, but ten to one you are 
to-day teaching some other subject without full appeal 
to the senses of your pupils. Spelling to-day would not 
be the rare and difficult accomplishment it is, if hand, 
eye, ear, and lips, with mind, all united in getting the 
word as it is. One of the principles enunciated by 
Herbert Spencer in his great chapter on ''Intellectual 
Education" is, ''Our lessons ought to start from the 
concrete and end in the abstract." First the sensation, 
then the thought, or, as Comenius phrased it, "First 
the thing, then the word." Many pupils and teachers 
will testify that sensations are more provocative of 
thought than are other thoughts. 

Second, utihze aright those agencies in the curriculum ^^^ °^\^® 

' ^ ^ Curriculum. 

that make for the training of the senses. These agencies 
include the kindergarten, object-lessons, nature-study, 



90 The Psychological Principles of Education 

the sciences, manual training, penmanship, drawing, 
vocal music, and similar work. One of the most valu- 
able of the senses of man is the muscular sense, report- 
ing movements, strains, pressures, and the like, and it is 
entirely overlooked in the historic list of the five senses 
of man. The muscles occupy more of the anatomy 
than all the other senses combined, and education, fol- 
lowing in the line of the traditional senses of man, is 
just beginning to reahze it has a service to render to 
the muscles as sources of sensation. Even where we 
have done something for the muscles it has often been 
from the wrong end ; that is, for the smaller rather than 
the larger muscles of the frame. Fortunately nature in 
the play of children has offset the detrimental influence 
of the minute actions which the school has exacted of 
its pupils. Play, games, athletics, gymnastics, running, 
romping, climbing, come first in muscular develop- 
ment. Then for the smaller muscles the work of the 
kindergarten, manual training, penmanship, and draw- 
ing are beneficial, indeed indispensable. Poor pen- 
manship and worse drawing are largely due to lack of 
discrimination between delicate muscular movements, 
together with a lack of coordination between the muscles 
and the eye. 

For the centres of touch, sight, and hearing there 
are object-lessons, nature-study, the sciences, and 
vocal music. Too frequently our object-lessons have 
as their aim information concerning the object; this 
is a legitimate aim, but it is secondary to the prime 
aim of training the powers of observation. From them 
the child is to get the idea that things are to be looked 



opening the Windows of Consciousness 91 

at, listened to, felt, taken to pieces, etc., that they may 
be understood. Even though we teach those subjects 
ordinarily supposed to afford little basis for sense- 
training, such as the languages, mathematics, and 
history, once we get the idea, we shall be surprised and 
delighted at how much we can do for our subjects by 
putting them down on a sense-basis. 

Third, the school should be equipped with certain ^^s^^ 
sensory apparatus, such as cases for minerals, plants, 
animals, and curios collected by pupils; also, sets of 
tools, weights, measures, scales, and regular plane and 
solid figures, all accessible to pupils for their use when 
needed. A case of tools is the full educational equiva- 
lent of a dictionary. It is the sense of real material 
things, objective facts, that children want and need, 
and the loss of which turns even the scholarship of men 
into pedantry. The student of mathematics needs his 
plane and soHd figures, from which as a base his imagi- 
nation can take wing. The equipment of the school 
with cases for collections of various kinds by pupils is 
not intended primarily to make pupils collectors, but 
to cultivate in them to some degree the spirit of the 
naturalist. At the entrance to every wood conscious- 
ness should habitually give itself the suggestion of the 
railroad crossing, "Stop, look, listen." How much 
more quickly the denizens of the forest are aware 
of us than are we of them ! 

Fourth, it would add e^reatly both to the pleasure and The Sense 

' . . , ., , . r ^^ of Smell. 

the aesthetic enjoyment of man if his sense of smell 
were better trained. The history of this sense in the 
race has shown a gradual transition from the useful in 



92 The Psychological Principles of Education 

animals and primitive man to the aesthetic in modern 
man. The olfactory lobes in the brain have shown a 
relative decrease in size. It is not to be expected that 
man can recover v^hat the sense of smell means to his 
dog, or even to primitive men, who may have found it 
useful in discovering the presence of enemies, nor 
would such a recovery be desirable, though the chemist, 
the druggist, the physician, and the chef would deny 
that smell is no longer useful to man. The real ground 
for giving more educational attention to the sense of 
smell is aesthetic. As Professor Sully observes: "The 
cultivating of the sense of smell, of sensibility to the 
odors of flower and herb, pasture and wood, summer 
and autumn, is an important ingredient in the formation 
of aesthetic taste, and more especially the development 
of the love of nature, which is a prime factor in all real 
enjoyment of poetry." ^ 

It would probably surprise us to read our favor- 
ite poet with a view to noting his reliance upon the 
suggestiveness of the odors of soil, flowers, fruit, per- 
fumes, and the rest. The associations that cluster 
about odors are peculiarly vivid and lasting : given a 
certain rare and delicate odor, our minds quickly and 
easily revert to the times, places, and persons where 
it was experienced before. And the joy of the outdoor 
life, into the fulness of which modern man seems des- 
tined to come later, if not sooner, depends to a degree of 
which we are unconscious upon the messages of nature 
that assail our nostrils. To note and enjoy them is 
to-day the sign of a favored or poetic child of nature. 

^ Quoted by T. J. Morgan, "Studies in Pedagogy," p. 48. 



opening the Windows of Consciousness 93 

Fifth, the sounds of the schoolroom should be accu- bounds of 

rr-iT • 1 • ' ^ *^^ School- 

rate, not slovenly. The ear is benig trained constantly room, 
by all the sounds it receives. When both teacher and 
pupils are clear and distinct in their enunciation, the 
ear is trained unconsciously to right standards, and easily 
detects a mispronunciation in oneself or others. Ex- 
pressive and v^ell modulated reading, a rightly pitched 
voice, clearly expressed answers, all help to. exercise 
the ear aright. 

And sixth, see that the sense-organs, particularly Care for 
eye and ear, are intact, and are kept so by the economy organs. 
of the school. Any principal with the letter-on-card 
devices of the oculists can quickly tell if any pupil is 
near- or far-sighted, or has some trouble needing the 
examination of a specialist; or whether some pupils 
are partially deaf, by testing each ear with the tick of 
the watch at the normal distance, itself determined by 
averaging cases. Pupils deficient in any sense-organ 
should be quickly discovered and their parents noti- 
fied of their need. Not far from a majority of truants 
are probably deficient in some sense-organ. Often 
a pupil is sensitive about his weakness, and receives 
blame from his teachers through being misunder- 
stood, and so quickly feels himself out of adjustment 
with the school. Often, too, a pupil is unconscious 
of his own weakness. All such cases, illustrations of 
which will probably occur to the reader, need quick 
and appropriate treatment. And the school economy 
should itself carefully preserve eyesight through right 
position at study, disposition of light, use of shades, 
proximity to the blackboard, and instruction in care 



94 The Psychological Principles of Education 

for the eyes on cars, in the twilight, and in the home- 
study. We are becoming a spectacled nation at an 
alarming pace. Study under best conditions is a tax 
on the eyes, as nature developed the eye under con- 
ditions of long-range vision, a fact which now re- 
quires a fatiguing adjustment to see any near object. 
The school must all the more avoid any unnecessary 
strain. 

Mistakes in Thesc, then, are certain ways in which the school may 
trainkiff cducatc the scuscs. Other and better ways are worthy 

our study and effort. It may be profitable for us at 
this point to reverse the shield and refer to certain mis- 
takes in sense-training. The normal not infrequently 
is best understood through contrast with the abnormal. 
Briefly, then, to refer to such mistakes, the list would 
include the putting of books before natural objects; 
the substitution of words about the thing for sensations 
of the thing; the giving and requiring of definitions 
before sensible illustrations ; through the sense of hurry 
not giving pupils time to make their own observa- 
tions for themselves ; telling them what to sense instead 
of asking them what they sense ; appealing mainly to 
a single sense-organ, for instance the ear, even when 
forms and colors are in question; requiring pupils to 
get from objects ideas with which they are already 
familiar; not showing the relations between the suc- 
cessive object lessons; continuing object lessons too 
long after reflection has set in; etc. The teacher's 
resolve should be, that my pupils, so far as I am able, 
shall open all the windows of consciousness to earth 



Opening the Windov^s of Consciousness 95 

and sky, that having eyes they shall see, and having 
ears they shall hear, the things that give both pleasure 
and peace. 

To the artist we must go for the full appreciation of 
the education of the senses, and so I append the following 
words from the lips of George Frederick Watts: — 

''The education of the people, that is the great 
question. Why do you not concentrate attention 
upon that? To educate your people, to draw out of 
them that which is latent in them, to teach them the 
faculties which they themselves possess, to tell them 
how to use their senses and to make themselves at 
home with nature and with their surroundings, — 
who teaches them that? Your elementary schools 
don't do it. No ; nor your public schools. Your 
Eton and your Harrow are just as much to blame, 
perhaps even more so. What is the first object which 
a real education should aim at? To develop observa- 
tion in the person educated, to teach him to use his 
eyes and his ears, to be keenly alive to all that surrounds 
him, to teach him to see, to observe, — in short, every- 
thing is in that. And then, after you have taught him 
to observe, the next great duty which lies immediately 
after observation is reflection, — to teach him to re- 
flect, to ponder, to think over things, to find out the 
cause, the reason, the why and the wherefore, to put 
this and that together, to understand something of the 
world in which he lives, and so prepare him for all the 
circumstances of the life in which he may be found 



5> 1 



An Artist 
Quoted. 



^ W. T. Stead, "England's Greatest Living Artist: George Fred- 
erick Watts," Review of Reviews, August, 1902. 



96 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Problems for Further Study 

1. A List of the Sensations. 

2. What Sensations do for Consciousness. 

3. Protection of the Eyes of Pupils. 

4. Spectacles and Civihzation. 

5. Truancy and Defective Sense-organs. 

References on Training the Senses 

Adams, Herbartian Psychology, etc., ch. VI. 

Bain, Education as a Science, pp. 170-172, 247-272. 

Compayre, Psychology AppKed, etc., ch. III. 

Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, ch. IV. 

Johonnot, Principles and Practice, etc., pp. 14-25, and ch. V. 

Morgan, Studies in Pedagogy, ch. III. 

Preyer, The Senses and the Will, ch. VII. 

Sully, The Teacher's Handbook, etc., ch. VI. 

Spencer, Education, ch. II. 



CHAPTER VIII 

EDUCATING THE MIND TO PERCEIVE 

A BRIEF preliminary paragraph must be devoted to 
the kinds of perception ; following this, we may inquire 
concerning the significance of each kind of perception 
for the growth of consciousness, and then concerning 
the method of educating the mind's perceiving function. 

There are two kinds of perception, viz. sense-percep- 
tion and inner perception. When the unqualified term The Kinds of 
perception is used, sense-perception is usually meant. ^^^^p^°"- 
By sense-perception is meant the knowledge of an indi- 
vidual sensible present thing. Examples would be the Sense- 
particular material objects of the world, like books, p^^'^^p'^"* 
desks, chairs, tools, etc. It will be observed that sense- 
perception is the mind's interpretation of a sensation, 
and at this point the present discussion touches the 
one preceding. My sensation may report yellow; my 
sense-perception reports the gold ring. The defini- 
tion shows that the object known in sense-perception 
is individual, otherwise we should have conception; 
that it is sensible, that is, capable of appealing to a 
sense-organ; that it is present, otherwise we should 
have memory or imagination ; and that it is spatially 
a "thing," otherwise we should have inner perception. 

The term inner perception must do double duty. i""er 
We define inner perception to be the knowledge of 

H 97 



98 The Psychological Principles of Education 

self and meanings. The mind looking inward at itself, 
and becoming aware of itself, its thoughts, feelings, or 
intuitions, or the mind becoming aware of the meaning 
of any thing, theory, or truth, is inner perception. For 
example, by inner perception I am aware both that I 
am now thinking of the mathematical axiom that the 
whole is equal to the sum of its parts, and also that it 
means so and so. These brief remarks concerning the 
nature of sense- and inner perception will become 
clearer as we proceed to ask concerning their signifi- 
cance for the growth of consciousness. 



The Sig- 
nificance 
of Sense- 
perception. 



For Knowl- 
edge. 



For Feeling. 



Sense-perception has a significance for knowledge, 
for feeling, and for action. For knowledge sense- 
perception signifies that the great and only way by 
which the mind gets information of the material 
objects of existence in relation to which we must live 
is through the interpretation of sensations; for this 
conclusion the preceding discussion on the senses has 
prepared us. To this conclusion must now be added 
the other things that sense-perception signifies for 
knowledge; viz. the simplest form of knowledge and 
easiest to acquire is that given through sense-perception 
of particular things as they exist ; the knowledge of the 
individual precedes the knowledge of the general; the 
knowledge of the concrete precedes the knowledge of 
the abstract ; and also, the knowledge of the material 
precedes the knowledge of the mental. 

For feeling sense-perception signifies how the feeling 
of famiharity depends on repeated perceptions, cor- 
responding to the excitation of old brain-paths in 



Educating the Mind to Perceive 99 

recognizing objects; how the feehng of monotony- 
depends on too oft-repeated perceptions; how the 
feehng of strangeness depends on novel perceptions, 
due to new combinations of brain-paths; and lastly, 
how the feelings of interest and curiosity depend on 
novel perceptions similar to old ones, the old brain- 
habits assimilating to themselves the new, though 
similar, situation. These observations to the reflective 
teacher carry with them their own application. 

For action sense-perception signifies that past action, For Action, 
in the form of old brain-habits, is the cause of present 
perception, as a musician excels in the perception of 
music ; that present action, in the form of adjustment 
of body or sense-organ, is the cause of present percep- 
tion, as when we open our eyes to see, or strain our 
ears to hear; that perception is a cause of action, as 
when we begin to talk on the appearance of a com- 
panion and lapse again into silence when he goes ; and 
still again, that perception is the beginning of self- 
controlled action, making possible the first delay in 
our reaction to a sensational stimulus, as when a child, 
after perceiving fire, checks his tendency to play with 
it. The more practical bearings on teaching of some 
of these meanings for action of sense-perception will 
appear presently. 

Inner perception, or the mind's power of knowing The sig- 
itself and recognizing meanings wherever present, of inner 
signifies, to begin with, the certainty of the existence Perception, 
of consciousness, which Descartes said he could not 
doubt without self-contradiction, an insight that has 

LOFa 



loo The Psychological Principles of Education 

become one of the corner-stones of the building of 
modern philosophy. Through inner perception, again, 
we come to self-consciousness, the wonderful attribute 
of man distinguishing him from the other orders of 
creation; through inner perception we attain that 
knowledge of self which Socrates extolled and which 
makes possible our modern introspective psychology; 
through inner perception as in no other way we realize 
that the world is for the thinker his idea, that the most 
real of all relationships is that of the subject-object, 
the thinker and the thought ; through inner perception, 
too, that is unduly protracted or morbidly introspective, 
action may be crippled, as in the case of Hamlet as he 
is usually, though perhaps mistakenly, interpreted; 
and, lastly, inner perception acquaints us with the 
inside of existence, with the meanings and the values of 
men and things. As the sun in its glory is caught and 
reflected by the smallest frost-crystal or dew-drop, 
so the meaning of reality is partially revealed by the 
least mind that thinks of it. These unamplified con- 
siderations on the significance of the two kinds of per- 
ception for the growth of consciousness, though perhaps 
somewhat taxing in themselves, will provide us with 
the bases upon which rest the practical suggestions on 
educating the mind to perceive, to which we now come. 



How to 

educate the 
Mind's 
Perceiving 
Function. 



In Plato's famous contribution to the science of 
oratory in the '^Phaedrus," he makes Socrates say, in 
effect, that ''division" is one of the two principles of 
right speaking, ''generalization" being the second. 
In somewhat the same spirit we must now say, teach 



Educating the Mind to Perceive loi 

a lesson by analysis. If one should teach as the mind Teach by 
learns, and if the individual notion is acquired before ^^^^^^' 
a definite general notion can be, perception preceding 
conception, then we should teach the lesson as so many 
individual points or notions. Perception commands 
us to individuate the lesson. The mind can get the 
whole clearly only by first getting the parts separately. 

This implies that in his preparation of the lesson the 
teacher is to note the points he wants to make. These 
points selected by him to teach and stress should be 
both the essential ones of the lesson and logically related 
to each other. If he will avoid vagueness in his own 
thought of the lesson, the teacher may be successfuMn 
securing clarity in the mind of his class. 

Once these essential and logically related points are 
selected from the complicated lesson material, teach 
them with clearness, with vividness, with force, and 
with illustration. From a lesson so analyzed and pre- 
sented the pupils cannot carry away vague and indefi- 
nite impressions. As one clever teacher remarked, 
''Most of my pupils almost know something." Just 
as sense-perception dissociates from each other in- 
dividual objects in the rich continuum of sensational 
experience, so the teaching of a lesson must make its 
individual notions stand out like the features on the 
countenance. 

Three of the six great principles of intellectual edu- The Prin- 
cation announced by Herbert Spencer have immediate spencer. 
bearing at this point. They are: ''In education we 
should proceed from the simple to the complex. . . . 
Our lessons ought to start from the concrete and end in 



I02 The Psychological Principles of Education 

the abstract. ... In each branch of instruction we 
should proceed from the empirical to the rational." 
These principles are needed almost as badly in schools 
to-day as when first written, and they will never grow 
old. They mean the chronological priority of art to 
science, of language to grammar, of thing to word, of 
fact to definition, and of example to rule. 
Learn to The next thing to note is that training in perception 

by doing. involvcs training in conduct. We are familiar with the 
motto, learn to do by doing ; we must become familiar 
with the motto, learn to perceive by doing. Train in 
conduct to-day, if you would have clear and accurate 
perception to-m.orrow. The painter perceives colors, 
the poet perceives the delicate modulations in rhythm^, 
the draftsman perceives lines and form, the worker 
perceives good and bad qualities of work, and the 
laboratory student perceives a poor experiment. To 
perceive a thing indeed, first make it. Our motor 
reactions, as in drawing any familiar object like a 
chair for the first time, show how vague is our usual 
perception of form. The basis of this suggestion is 
that all perception is due to brain-habit, without which 
we should have not a perception but a sensation. 
Professor Royce has conveyed the idea of this para- 
graph in the following way: ''If you are to train the 
powers of perception, you must train the conduct of 
the person who is to learn how to perceive. Nobody 
sees more than his activities have prepared him to see 
in the world." ^ 

First sense-perception, then inner perception; first 

^ J. Royce, "Outlines of Psychology," p. 226. 



Educating the Mind to Perceive 103 
that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual ; ^^^^ t^^ 

-,,.-. . _^ . Transition to 

first the thing, then its meaning. Rest not m the inner 
knowledge of the material thing, but pass onward to Perception, 
its inner significance. Dr. Tompkins writes: ''The 
individual material thing is the expression of an univer- 
sal spiritual truth. The material world is the mani- 
festation of the spiritual, and must be resolved into it." 
This resolution of the material into the spiritual is 
the reverse of the process by which the artist embodies 
his spiritual message in some material form. The 
granite shaft at Bunker Hill is more than stone, it is 
both patriotism and gratitude; a word enshrining its 
idea is more than letters ; the bow of hope and promise 
is more than the colors of the spectrum ; the lily rebuk- 
ing our anxiety for clothes is more than organized mat- 
ter ; and a sparrow's fall is more than an illustration of 
the law of gravity. Lowell could indite with the 
flavor of Emerson, — 

" With our faint hearts the mountain strives." 
For secondary school pupils, to whom a certain Train inner 

. . . , Perceptions. 

amount of introspection is natural, the mmd-world as 
well as the matter-world should be an object of con- 
scious study. Inner as well as outer perception should 
be intentionally cultivated. The sciences afford the 
best opportunity for developing sense-perception, and 
the humanities for developing inner perception. The 
courses in literature and history afford excellent con- 
crete material for the definite study of the human self, 
bringing pupils thereby into a better comprehension 
of their own inner states. The study of the humanities 

^ Arnold Tompkins, "Philosophy of Teaching," p. ii8. 



I04 The Psychological Principles of Education 

should regularly include definite attention to such mat- 
ters as putting oneself in the place of the character 
studied, the examination of motives, the influence of 
feeling, the effect of ideas on conduct, the estimation of 
different ambitions, and the effect of a crowd on mind 
and conduct. Such attention to inner perception, 
whereby pupils become acquainted with the nature 
of human consciousness in others and themselves, is 
peculiarly desirable for those who will never have a 
chance in college at social and individual psychology. 
The latter year or two of the secondary school period 
should be particularly rich in such material, not 
formally presented in a text, but concretely taught 
in connection with all the suitable courses. It is 
the last chance many boys and girls will have of 
attaining an instructed consciousness of self. 

On account of the dominating influence of sense- 
perception in the grades, it seems to me we cannot 
afford to go the length Professor Stanley advocates 
in the following words, but I quote them here that we 
may at least be led to consider how far we must go 
with him. He writes: "It is high time that scientific 
education in study of minds as well as things should 
be adopted for the whole course of school training, It 
is far more important for the child scientifically to 
study angers and fears than seeds and larvae ; in short, 
to appreciate its own psychic state and its psychic en- 
vironment is of more significance than knowledge of 
its physical state and environment ... A rational 
scientific pedagogy demands, then, that the teaching of 
psychology, that is, a training in purely scientific ob- 



Educating the Mind to Perceive 105 

servation and interpretation of consciousness, begin 
with earUest childhood and continue through school 
life." ' 

In moral education the perception of duty becomes ^^"^^^ 
clarified when the present duty that is seen is done, pends on 
Present moral action leads to future moral insight. ^°^^^ 

° Action. 

An immoral man's opinion on moral matters is cloudy. 
The vigorous actor is the clear thinker. Moralists, 
religious teachers, and psychologists ahke unite in 
affirming this principle. One of the Proverbs reads, 
''Commit thy works unto Jehovah, and thy thoughts 
shall be estabHshed." Jesus said, "If any man will 
do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." Carlyle 
thunders: ''Do the duty which lies nearest thee, 
which thou knowest to be a duty. Thy second duty will 
already have become clearer." While the calm Hoffding 
writes, "A firm resolve carried out with decision and 
without hesitation, clears up the whole mental atmos- 
phere and scatters the clouds which dim the clearness 
of thought." ^ In the mouth of many witnesses and 
in the personal experience of the reader the truth is 
established that moral practice is the cause of moral 
insight. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Distinctions between Sensation and Sense -perception. 

2. A List of the Sense-percepts. 

3. Introspection as a Method in Psychology. 

4. Sensationalism as an Epistemology. » 

5. Positivism as a Philosophy. 

^ H. M. Stanley, "The Teaching of Psychology," Ed. Rev.^ Vol. i6. 
^ Harold Hoffding, "Outlines of Psychology," p. 331. 



io6 The Psychological Principles of Education 



References on Educating the Mind to Perceive 

Adams, Herbartian Psychology, etc., ch. VI. 

Baldwin, Psychology Apphed, etc., chs. II, III, VI. 

Baldwin, Elementary Psychology and Education, ch. VI. 

Dexter and GarHck, Psychology, etc., chs. V, VI. 

Grey, Rosmini's Method in Education, pp. 48-56. 

Morgan, Psychology for Teachers, ch. IV. 

Morgan, Studies in Pedagogy, ch. X. 

Tompkins, The Philosophy of Teaching, pp. 1 15-145. 

Stanley, The Teaching of Psychology, Ed. Rev., Vol. 16, pp. 177 

et seq. 
Sully, The Teacher's Handbook of Psychology, ch. VIII. 
White, Elements of Pedagogy, pp. 38-45. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE EDUCATIONAL USES OF THE APPERCEPTIVE 
PROCESS 

Owing to the influence of Herbart on the psycho- 
logical Hterature written for teachers, it is probably 
true that the chapter on apperception is the most 
famihar one in my list. For this reason the present 
discussion may detain all of us but httle, and some of 
us not at all. Bearing always in mind our practical 
needs as teachers and avoiding at this point an attrac- 
tive historical excursus into the meaning of the term 
*' apperception" from Leibniz through Kant to Herbart 
and finally to Wundt, let me select for our considera- 
tion the nature, results, conditions, and uses, of apper- 
ception. As nothing else can do, the study of apper- 
ception impresses the teacher with the importance of 
viewing the lesson as the pupils from their limited ex- 
perience must view it, for, as Professor De Garmo has 
said : "Modern child-study emphasizes the fact that the 
subject-matter of instruction, together with the sequence 
of its topics, and the time of its presentation, should be 
governed by the child's power to apperceive. Further- 
more, methods of teaching and of moral training should 
take their cue from the same changeable power." ^ 

^ Charles De Garmo, "Baldwin's Dictionary of Philosophy and 
Psychology," article, " Apperception (in education)." 

107 



io8 The Psychological Principles of Education 



The Nature Apperception may be very simply defined as the 

of Appercep- . ,, . • r i • 

tion. mmd s interpretation of the new m terms of the old. 

A more technical definition from the interesting, though 

Definitions. proHx, monograph of Lange on the subject is: ^'Apper- 
. ception is that psychical activity by which individual 
perceptions, ideas, or idea-complexes are brought into 
relation to our previous intellectual and emotional 
life, assimilated with it, and thus raised to greater clear- 
ness, activity, and significance." V It will be observed 
from these definitions that apperception is not so much 
a mental result like sensations and percepts as a mental 
process. It might be likened to the physical process 
of digestion, the sensation being the food, and the 
percept being the resultant acquisition of strength. 
To show the relation of apperception, as a process of 
interpreting new experiences according to old ones, 
to sensation and perception, it might be said that 
apperception is the mental assimilation of a sensation 
resulting in a perception. 

Illustrations. Certain illustrations, parallels of which can be du- 
plicated by the dozen by all observers of mental life, 
especially of its transparent processes in artless chil- 
dren, will clarify these definitions. Any child learn- 
ing to master its physical environment acquires very 
quickly, even before the age of three, a Hmited though 
growing set of fairly general notions, each one of which 
is applied almost automatically to such new experi- 
ences as it will at all fit. Two of these general notions 
most used at present by my little girl of two and a 
half years is "asleep" and "wake up." The number 

^ Lange, ''Apperception," p. 53. 



Educational Uses of Apperceptive Process 109 

of situations to which she finds these descriptions ade- 
quate is indefinitely large, such as the hat, coat, 
and gloves are "asleep" when put away and ''wake 
up" when brought out again; the money is ''asleep" 
when put into the pocket, and "wake up" when taken 
out again; the scissors are "asleep" when shut and 
"wake up" when opened; the electric Ught is "asleep" 
when turned off and "wake up" when turned on again ; 
the grass is "asleep" when the snow covers it, and the 
snow is "asleep" when it melts ; the stars are "asleep" 
at sunrise, and the sun "wake up," etc. 

The identical process is at work also in the mind of 
older persons, only here the number of general notions 
according to which new experiences are ticketed off 
is larger and fit better. All of us find in the world 
what we ourselves are ; we bring back from our travels 
according to what we carry ; our judgments reveal our- 
selves as truly as their objects ; more is given us accord- 
ing as we already have ; we see what we have eyes to 
see ; we hear what we have ears to hear ; our life makes 
our philosophy ; and so on through the list of the familiar 
true sayings. In his educational masterpiece, " Wilhelm 
Meister," Goethe wrote, "Man understands nothing 
but what is appropriate to him. Hence the duty of 
saying to others only the things that they can receive." 
Similarly Emerson: "What can we see or acquire but 
what we are? You have seen a skilful man reading 
Vergil. Well, that author is a thousand books to a 
thousand persons. Take the book into your hand and 
read your eyes out, you will never find what I find." 
Apperception is thus a human process, signifying that 



no The Psychological Principles of Education 

all limitations to our insight are subjective in origin 
and character, the gradual widening of these limita- 
tions being the natural destiny of the growing life. 



The Results 
of Apper- 
ception. 
The New 
Modified. 



The Old 
Modified. 



Compre- 
hension. 



Interest. 



Unity. 



Seeing thus the nature of apperception, it will be easy 
to specify briefly its results for consciousness. Apper- 
ception, in the first place, modifies the new by the old. 
This is its most characteristic result. We can see in 
the new only what our old experience permits us to 
see. 

Secondly, it is no less true that the new also modifies 
the old; it takes its place with the old, and becomes a 
part of the old against the next new experienced To a 
child raised in a Saxon community all men are white 
until travel shows him that a particular_color is not an 
essential quality of man. 

Thirdly, apperception yields comprehension. We 
know a thing when we can classify it, when we can 
relate it properly to other things. What we cannot 
relate, we cannot understand ; indeed, the unassimilable 
either escapes our notice altogether or else is quickly 
lost. 

Fourthly, and full of significance 'for the teacher, 
apperception means interest. Two things are unin- 
teresting to pupils ; monotonous old things and unin- 
telligible new things. What interests them is the novel 
intelligible thing. 

Fifthly, apperception gives unity to our knowledge. 
The disconnected it seeks to join, the fragmentary it 
seeks to piece together. To use a crude figure of 
speech to illustrate mental effects, apperception is the 



Educational Uses of Apperceptive Process 1 1 1 

mortar that holds the stones together in the temple of 
knowledge. 

And sixthly, the use of one's present knowledge in Conscious- 
acquiring more gives a certain consciousness of power Power. 
that is very stimulating and encouraging to pupilsi- 
.They have done something of themselves and they feel 
it, the fount of knowing is springing up within them, 
and they recognize the truth, not simply because of the 
teacher's words, but as seeing for themselves. 

The results of the apperceptive process are so many The 
and so desirable in the class-room and laboratory and Effective Ap- 
workshop that we may profitably inquire next con- ^h^ Apper- 
cerning the conditions of effective apperception. These ceivingMass. 
are, in succession, first, the existence in the mind of a 
rich and varied " apperceiving mass." There is no 
understanding of the strange, new, and difficult things 
pupils are constantly struggling to learn apart from 
present similar ideas already in consciousness. Every 
child has his little mind really full of apperceiving 
notions of some description ; unfortunately they are not 
always rich and varied, owing to the limitations of past 
environment. 

The second condition is attention to the new subject. Attention. 
So essentially related indeed are the processes of apper- 
ception and attention that to Leibniz, who first used the 
term apperception, the terms were practically synony- ^ 

mous, and to Wundt to-day attention is one of the 
elements involved in apperception. Attention it is 
that spans the gulf between the old and the new, per- 
mitting them to fuse. At the beginning of the process 



112 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Emotional 
Congruity^ 



Physical 
Conditions. 



of apperception, the attention may be hard or easy to 
give to the new matter ; as the process of apperception 
proceeds, the attention becomes increasingly easy. 

The third condition is the sense of harmony between 
the class and the subject. Their feelings are agreeable 
to the work, their spirit and humor are right toward 
it, and the general atmosphere is invigoratingi No 
teacher can work the miracle of knowledge in an unex- 
pectant class ; no revelation of truth can come to an 
unawakened mind. 

And the fourth condition of effective apperception is'^ 



good physical conditions, within and without the body/ 
Then the reactive energy of the mind is strong, and the 
class *' catches on" with facility. Attention, rapport, 
comprehension, are all difi&cult to weak, nervous bodies 
or to strong bodies under physical discomfort. 



The Use of 
Appercep- 
tion in 
Teaching. 



Study the 
Pupils. 



Turning from the nature, results, and conditions of 
apperception, we now come to the most practical of 
the questions concerning it, viz. what use may be 
made of apperception in teaching? In the first place, 
we must study to know the mental content of our pupils. J> 
This enables us always to teach out from where they 
now are. It is easier — though not easy — for the 
teacher to come down to the plane of the learners than 
for the learners to come up to the plane of the teacher. 
The things that possess the consciousness of children, 
we shall find, are not the logically most important things, 
they are the practical daily things, like other children,^ 
animals, food, clothing, objects, play, etc. With chil- 
dren we shall also find that the deed or the thing is 



Educational Uses of Apperceptive Process 113 

learned prior to the name of it. Unlike the players in 
*' Hamlet," they suit the word to the action. Except 
we be converted from our adult ways of thinking, and 
become as little children, we cannot enter the kingdom 
of teaching. And of every great teacher, whatsoever 
the age of his pupils, it must be said that he knew what 
was in man. 

Second, we must study to utilize the mental content utilize their 
of our pupils./ Lazarus has said, "The apperceiving 
notions usually stand like armed soldiers within the 
stronghold of consciousness, ready to pounce upon 
everything which shows itself within the portals of the 
senses, in order to overcome it and make it serviceable 
to themselves." These armed soldiers sometimes lie 
sleeping ; they need first of all to be awakened. Figures 
aside, this means that the proper apperceptive mass 
must be stimulated before presenting new material. 
The mind's own spontaneity cannot be trusted always to 
bring forth the right apperceiving material without sug- 
gestion from the teacher. The most difficult and re- 
mote conceptions are made easy and clear by utilizing • 
the mental content already present, as when the con- 
ception of discipleship is presented to Gahlean fisher- 
men under the term "fishers of men." 

Third, utilize particularly the beginning and end of The Opening 
the recitation to aid apperception. Begin by putting of the *^^'"^ 
the class in touch with the subject, — call to mind famil- Recitation, 
iar knowledge similar to the new you would present, 
or, better, ask free and informal questions on past 
experiences or study similar in content to to-day's 
material. Never fail at the beginning of a recitation 



114 The Psychological Principles of Education 

to state clearly, with all alert, the purpose of the lesson 
in hand. End a recitation also by suggesting the next 
subject, clearing up in advance any insuperably difficult 
matter, showing the relationship of that to this, referring 
to a related reading, etc. 

Knit New Fourth, and now I say, in the middle of the recitation 

also present new material always in relation to old, by 
story, by illustration, by parable, by review, by question- 
ing the class on its experience. As James, the wonder- 
ful, has it, "The great maxim in pedagogy is to loiit 
every new piece of knowledge on to a preexisting 
curiosity; i.e. to assimilate its matter in some way to 
what is already known." ^ 

Supply Ap- Fifth, teachers must supply the apperceiving material 

MateriaL^ when lacking. It is the prior experience of the child 
that fits him for our instruction ; if he has had no fitting 
prior experience, we must do what we can to supply his 
deficiency, remembering too that most of our pupils 
have had only inadequate prior experience. This idea 
may be illustrated by observational tramps in geog- 
raphy; visits to the famous places, battlegrounds, and 
museums in history ; pictures, and stories about authors, 
their lives, their homes, in literature ; the use of current 
market prices in arithmetic, etc. In general, create 
and utihze the apperceiving niass\, 

Take Time. Sixth, allow ample time for the new impression to 
find its proper home in the mindy Not cram, not too 
many recitations, not too long assignments, not too 
many studies, not too much haste, but time to assimi- 
late, to think, leisurely to absorb, and to grow. All 

^ James, "Principles of Psychology," Vol. II, p. no, note. 



Educational Uses of Apperceptive Process 115 

this is little short of impossible, I know, when to-day 
the pressure is so great from both below and above. 
Meanwhile, however, till we Americans learn the 
classic art of slow haste, we teachers may select a few 
essential points for each meeting with our class and 
drive these home in preference to scurrying over many 
matters. 

Seventh, a word about '^ correlation." Apperception Correlation, 
teaches us that the true correlation is with life. Of 
course it is true that successive lessons must be correlated 
with each other, that a single subject must be self- 
correlated, that all the subjects must be correlated with 
each other, perhaps even with some central subject; 
but, after all, life is the centre with which each lesson, 
subject, and curriculum must be correlated. Apper- 
ception teaches us henceforth to know no centre of 
correlation except the child and his experience. / Teach- 
ing is an extension of experience out from the known 
into the unknown. Every class-room is the sacred 
place where truth reveals itself to prepared minds. 

In concluding our discussion of the subject of apper- Education 
ception which has occupied such a large, though unre- ceptiv^Mass. 
lated place, in post-Herbartian pedagogical literature, 
let us conceive of education itself as an apperceptive 
mass. It v/ill be a true conception, though not the 
whole truth. The educated mind alone, though often 
falHng below its privilege, is permitted to get the most 
and the best from life; only in proportion as we are 
truly educated are we able to apperceive life in its 
reality.^ The secret of life is revealed only to those who 



ii6 The Psychological Principles of Education 

lead the real life, and the revelation of the secret of life 
is an unfolding revelation because the real life is an 
unfolding process. As Herder said, "What we are not 
we can neither know nor feel," and Longfellow adds, 
"We see what we have the gift to see;" and meaning 
the same thing, though more enigmatical, are the say- 
ings, "To him that hath shall be given," and, "He that 
hath ears let him hear." It is the business of education 
to open the bHnd eyes, to unstop the deaf ears, to loosen 
the silent tongue, to equip the mind to react rightly on 
its world. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The History of the Term Apperception. 

2. The Physiological Explanation of Apperception. 

3. The Influence of Old Habits on New Experience. 

References on Apperception 

De Garmo, Essentials of Method, chs. II, III. 

De Garmo, Herbart, Part II, ch. VII. 

Dexter and Garhck, Psychology in the Schoolroom, ch. XIII. 

Dewey, Psychology, pp. 85-90. 

Harris, Herbart and Pestalozzi Compared, Ed, Rev., May, 1893. 

Hughes, Froebel's Educational Laws, ch. IX. 

James, Talks to Teachers, ch. XIV. 

Lange, Apperception. 

McMurry, Elements of General Method, ch. VI. 

O'Shea, Education as Adjustment, ch. XII. 

Rooper, A Pot of Green Feathers. 

Stout, Analytic Psychology, Vol. II, ch. VIII. 

Stout, Manual of Psychology, Book III, ch. I. 

Witmer, Analytic Psychology, ch. I. 



CHAPTER X 

AIDING MEMORY 

"There is no topic in educational psychology more Theimpor- 
important than that of memory and its cultivation." ^ considering 
We may suggest several reasons why this opinion of Memory. 
Dr. Harris is true. First, because the importance of 
memory has been so overrated in the past of educa- it has been 
tional history. Indeed, it might be said that hitherto 
memory has been the pack-horse of education. It 
has received more attention from past teachers than, 
to use an outgrown term, any other "faculty" of con- 
sciousness. Of course the Jesuit systems of education 
have been and are the best, though not the only, illus- 
trations, saying as they do, "repititio mater studiorum." 

Second, along with the overrating of the importance ^"^ ^p- 

- , . pressed. 

of memory has naturally gone unjust oppressions. It 
has been made to do double or treble duty. Its cul- 
tivation so nearly excluded attention to any of the 
other mental functions that one of the many varia- 
tions on the historic "Three R's" is, "rod, rule, and 
remembrance." With this oppression memory- work 
became also perforce formal and mechanical instead of 
real and vital. 

Third, in contrast with the overrating of the past, itisunder- 
and by a kind of natural reaction, the importance of 

* W. T. Harris, Editor's Preface in Kay's volume on Memory. 

117 



1 1 8 The Psychological Principles of Education 

memory is being underrated to-day, especially the 
importance of verbal and rote memorizing. No one 
at the present time would make verbal memory the 
chief mental accompHshment ; still it would be too 
much to say that a verbal memory has no value. It 
is important in life to have an accurate and ready mem- 
ory, to be able to quote correctly and aptly and quickly, 
to remember names with faces, and to make what 
we know come up for immediate service. So many 
things upon the verge of which our memory trembles ! 
There is a truth, though not a prepotent one, in one 
of the old phrases, "Tantum scimus quantum memo- 
ria tenemus." Almost nobody has a good word for 
"mere memory" to-day, although we sorely miss its 
absence, as in our poor spelling. 

Fourth, let us outrightly maintain what we con- 
ceive to be the truth, what we all feel must be the truth 
when we think about it twice, viz. the real indispen- 
sableness of memory in education and in life. As 
Bain has it, though perhaps too strongly phrased, 
''The leading inquiry in the Art of Education is how 
to strengthen the memory." We correctly think of 
memory as knowledge of the past; without it, our 
present would be unintelhgible and our future unan- 
ticipated. The true and indispensable function of 
memory is to make our reactions upon present and 
future stimuli more intelligent, reliable, and effective. 
In addition to this practical service, the pleasures of 
memory are manifold, particularly as it has a trick 
of dwelling mostly upon our joys and successes. 

And fifth, it is important for us to consider memory 



Systems." 



Aiding Memory 119 

because of the many flaring announcements of ''mem- 
ory systems," mnemonics, and artificial devices for 
memory-training that are afloat, that have a smatter- "Memory 
ing of psychological principles, and catch the dollars 
of the unsophisticated. Even the photographs of 
memory professors are not unfamiliar to the readers 
of advertisements, as who of us are not in these days 
when the advertisers in the magazines often show a 
more efficient use of "the psychological moment" 
than the contributors? Probably the decadence of 
the power to remember, through educational neglect, 
has contributed somewhat to the opportunity for "mem- 
ory systems" to announce themselves, after the fash- 
ion of the following: — 



86,000 In 



ured 
10,000 Killed 

These official figures for the latest fiscal 
year represent the unprecedented record of 
injury and slaughter on the railway systems 
of the United States. The epidemic of 
wrecks is rapidly increasing. Since July 1st 
268 lives have been lost in railway wrecks, 
not counting hundreds of casualties. The 
reason back of almost every recent smash-up 
can be almost invariably expressed in the 
two words : — 



i^ 



I FORCOT" 



Either the despatcher, the operator, the con- 
ductor, the engineer, or the brakeman FOR- 
GOT something vitally important. Beyond 
every mechanical safeguard, every provision 



1 20 The Psychological Principles of Education 

of " standard code," or special rule lies the 
"human factor," and the most impoirtant 
element in this factor is MEMORY. This 
is true of every branch of the operating de- 
partment of every railway, and it is true of 
almost every other responsible position in 
active life. If you want your memory as in- 
fallible as it is possible to get it, study " As- 
similative Memory : — 

How to Attend 
a. Jever Forget" 

which is the title of the book that contains 
the complete LOISETTE MEMORY SYS- 
TEM. This system, which formerly has 
been sold only under the most rigid restric- 
tions and at a high price, develops and 
brings into action dormant and hitherto 
unused memory power. It gives a right direc- 
tion to mental functions and powers, com- 
pletely abolishing mind-wandering and in- 
suring ACCURACY and PRECISION of 
thought. It increases by many fold the 
value of every mind. i2mo, cloth, ^2.50. 

A sure sign of the prevalence and the influence of 
such sensational promises is the appearance of satire.* 
Let us for a moment stop to illustrate and estimate 
these mnemonics, or artificial devices for aiding mem- 
ory. Simple and untechnical mnemonics we all have 
probably used, illustrations of which are, the string 
around the finger, the knot in the handkerchief, "Thirty 
days has September," etc., the multiplication line 
nine, with its decreasing units and its increasing tens, 

^ See, for example, a witty skit by Carolyn Wells in the October 
C^fitury, 1904, on "Professor Lose-It's School of forgettory." 



Aiding Memory 121 

''Roy G. Biv" for the colors of the spectrum, giving 
the first letter of each color in order from red to violet, 
and, most famous of all, the formal logic lines begin- 
ning, "Barbara Celarcnt," etc. 

But the advertised memory systems use a more tech- 
nical device, as well as these simpler ones. The prin- ^heir 

. ^ Principle. 

ciple of every mnemonic system is to form some sort 
of association, usually accidental, with the thing to be 
remembered, this accidental association being fixed 
in consciousness by thought and attention. Who, 
for example, could forget the height of Pike's Peak as 
12,365 feet in case he had ever indelibly, though me- 
chanically, associated it with the number of the months 
and days of the year? One of the most elaborate 
mechanical ways of remembering dates and numbers 
is by means of the so-called "figure-alphabet," in 
which each figure has one or more consonants which 
represent it. The figure-alphabet is first to be fixed 
in mind, then the number or date is remembered by 
making a fitting word of the consonants representing 
the numbers, supplying vowels. For example, it 
is desired to remember the date of the founding of 
Harvard, 1636. In the figure-alphabet the conso- 
nants representing the successive figures in the date 
are t, ch, m, ch. Connecting these by certain vowels, 
we get teach much as the key to the founding of Har- 
vard ! 

How shall we estimate such mental foolery? Per- Estimation, 
haps it would be too much to say sweepingly mnemon- 
ics have no value at all. Rather their value is limited 
to the memorizing of such things as have no logical 



122 The Psychological Principles of Education 

or natural associates, but are disconnected and un- 
related, like lists of popes, kings, presidents, etc. At 
best they are a crutch for memory to go on, and as 
Compayre somewhere observes, "the memory is not 
strengthened by everything that aids it." It will 
also be noticed that the memorizing of the key is not 
easy; that at least is unassisted memory; there is no 
key to the key. Usually too the same time devoted 
to the thing itself that is spent on the device will yield 
a successful issue. It would be unfortunate for any 
mind to come to rely upon a mechanical association 
to keep it in touch with its past, for that past is really 
instinct with life and not at all the formal thing such a 
mental carrying of it would suggest. And as Dr. 
Noah Porter adds, ". . . if the mind tasks itself to 
the special effort of considering objects under these 
artificial relations, it will give less attention to those 
which have a direct and legitimate interest for itself." 
Finally it must be said that when facts to be remem- 
bered have essential relationships with other facts, 
it does positive violence both to intelligence and to 
reality to hang them by the neck until dead upon such 
a stiff framework. 

How to Let us turn then to the more vital and natural ways 

Memo^ry. o^ keeping the knowledge of our past. First, a good 
memory goes back to good health. The physiologi- 
cal psychologists tell us that corresponding to our 
Health. psychical experiences are physical brain-processes; 

that every mental occurrence means the formation of 
a certain brain-path; that when this brain- path is 



Aiding Memory 123 

retraced by nervous energy, the occurrence is revived 
in memory ; that the permanence of these brain-paths 
depends upon the native retentiveness of the brain; 
and that this native retentiveness is practically un- 
modifiable by practice, though advancing age notably 
diminishes it. Now whatsoever quality of native 
retentiveness is ours by birthright is diminished in 
poor health and tends to reach its upper limit of effec- 
tiveness in good health. We all know how much 
better we can remember in health than in sickness, 
and how the events of an illness go from us. Thus 
indirectly, if not directly by practice, we can avail 
ourselves of whatsoever degree of retentiveness nature 
has granted us. We despise our heritage of retentive- 
ness when we solicit ill-health by poor food, overwork, 
lack of exercise, bad air, improper clothing, and 
anxiety. In vain do we neglect physical demands and 
expect mental returns. 

Second, avoid brain fatigue, particularly before it Avoid Brain 
is to be subjected to any trial of memory. In fatigue 
the brain cells may shrink to half their normal size, 
and in this condition our associations are fewer in 
quantity, poorer in quality, slower in revival, and in- 
coherent as related to each other. Any one who has 
sat up half the night preparing for an examination the 
next day will recognize this description. It is as though 
the tortoise had withdrawn into its shell and conse- 
quently is unable to make connections with the out- 
side world. Though avoiding brain fatigue, it may 
be observed that moderate intellectual exercise keeps 
up the tone of the brain and is better than disuse for 



1 24 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Make First 

Impressions 

Lasting. 



Repetition. 



the associative processes. A good memory, a good 
working brain, not so much demands infrequent 
long vacations as frequent short ones, of which the 
nightly sleep is the best evidence and illustration. 

Third, in teaching make the first impression vivid, 
definite, and exact. Only if so made is it likely to 
be lasting. Get all curious, alert, attentive, then 
quickly and deftly press home the matter, to use a 
coarse and inappHcable figure, Hke the seal of a letter 
upon the warm soft wax. Unlike money, in memory 
keeping is mostly a matter of getting. As Dr. M. 
Granville has said, "The natural and only true basis 
of memory is a well-founded impression." Physio- 
logically expressed, a vivid first impression makes 
the brain path more permanent and more easily 
retraced. Since it is conjectured by Ostwald that 
nerve force is electricity, we may illustrate and mag- 
nify by saying the vivid first impression is like 
the lightning ploughing a path for itself down the 
tree trunk. 

Fourth, if necessary, deepen the impression by 
repetition. This is like wearing out a plain path 
through a virgin meadow by much travel. Repeti- 
tion, however, should not be mechanical, a mode of 
unthinking mental impression, but should be an aid 
to comprehension, judicious, in new ways, at inter- 
vals, and increasingly acquisitive. Mechanical repe- 
tition, such as is to be heard aloud, even in concert, 
in some Chinese schools, is the means to that rote 
learning and verbal memory so much deprecated. 
''Memory should be the cradle and not the tomb of 



' '^ Aiding Memory 125 

an idea," and repetition should rather nourish than 
destroy the young idea. 

Fifth, let memory follow understanding. First Under- 
comprehend, then remember. Not that we are to ^^^ ^"^* 
comprehend it all before memorizing, but that we are 
not to memorize what we do not comprehend at all. 
Many biblical texts learned in our youth still have not 
yielded up to us all their meaning; then we compre- 
hended in part, now more, but still in part. The 
point is, do not compel, nor even allow, pupils to 
recite off ghbly from their tongue's end what has no 
meaning for their consciousness. A busy little school- 
girl was asked if she understood what she was learning 
so fast. ''Oh, no, sir," she said, "we have so much 
to learn we don't have time to understand it." Out 
of the mouths of our pupils are we condemned or 
justified ! 

Sixth, improve the habit of study. This covers a improve the 
great deal. In part it goes back to the point above, study. 
about first impressions, and in part it introduces us to 
some new considerations. In general it would be correct 
to say that pupils (shall I limit the statement to pupils ?) 
do not know how to study. It is a very much larger 
matter than improving memory, but a good memory 
is one of the many beneficent results of a good habit 
i of study. A good way to master any lesson is first to 
! read the whole through carefully, leisurely, and atten- 
tively, — "one careful reading of a lesson is worth a 
dozen attempts merely to memorize the words." 
This gives a good general idea of the whole. Then 
read again, analyzing it into its essential parts, with 



126 The Psychological Principles of Education 

concentrated attention, with leisure enough to let each 
main point sink deeply into consciousness in all its 
bearings, with thought fixed on the ideas the words 
express, and with reflection as to the relation of 
these truths to practical Hfe. Then, when done, close 
the book, and think it all over in mind, ordering 
the essential points in their relation to each other, per^ 
haps even putting them on paper, until some vision 
of the unitary whole composed of its many parts rises 
in consciousness. Then you have it. And I trust 
that what you have has been worth this method of 
getting it. You will agree that so to get it is to get it 
indeed and is not soon to forget it. So we ought to 
study the things that are worth our study at all. 
Think ! Seventh, make the pupils think ! This cultivates 

a logical memory. To think is to form real associa- 
tions, to put things in consciousness where they belong, 
to get the thing as it is in itself. All things should be 
taught and thought in their relations to each other, 
stressing particularly the similar and essential rela- 
tions. How happy a thing it is, when matters cannot 
be recalled, to be able to think them out again. We 
can think them out if we have first thought them in. 
Coleridge has said concerning memory, "Sound 
logic, as the habitual subordination of the individual 
to the species, and of the species to the genus : philo- 
sophical knowledge of the facts under the relation of 
cause and effect . . . these are the best arts of mem- 
ory." We shall find that the most serviceable rela- 
tionship under which thought can represent memor- 
able things are those which nature herself assigns the 



Aiding Memory 127 

! things, whether of contiguity, similarity, cause and 
'effect, or part and whole. The consciousness whose 
knowledge is ordered as the facts of nature themselves 
are will have a logical and dependable memory. 

Eighth, it will not be surprising after these points indirect 

- - , . Training. 

on improvmg memory to add, as yet another: tram 
memory, not directly, but indirectly through training 
the acquiring and assimilative powers of the mind, 
viz. interest, attention, and intelligent perception. 
Memory, like happiness, is reached best by aiming 
at something else. Make the lesson a real present 
experience, leaving its recall to-morrow to take thought 
for itself. "The attitude of the pupil's mind should 
be ; I must perceive this just as it is and in all its bear- 
ings: not, I must remember this." ^ Certain experi- 
ments by Bieroliet ^ prove that the cooperation of 
two or more senses in fixing the images of words to 
be memorized produces much better results than where 
only one is concerned, and that attention and interest 
are of more value than mere repetition ; or, as old 
Dr. Johnson is said to have remarked, "Interest is 
the mother of attention, attention is the mother of 
memory: therefore to get memory, secure both its 
mother and its grandmother." 

This concludes what we have to suggest on improv- incidental 
ing the memory. The subject however is both so ations. 
complex and so widely considered that a great many 
interesting and pertinent matters have grouped them- 

^ McLellan and Dewey, "Applied Psychology," p. 95. 

^ "Esquisse d'une Education de la Memoire," Paris, 1903. 



128 The Psychological Principles of Education 

selves about memory as a nucleus. Some of these 

we may, with profit perhaps, select and briefly consider. 

The impor- And to begin with, let us refer to the importance of 

tance of . . , . 

Forgetting. lorgettmg. Not that we should consciously aim to 
improve our powers of forgetting, which would prob- 
ably end in our remembering all the better the things 
we wanted to forget, but that a certain amount of 
forgetting is natural and good, and from this fact we 
should take rather comfort than alarm. It is prob- 
ably true that the brain never forgets anything, it 
registers all experiences; but for many reasons the ma- 
jority of our experiences will never live in conscious- 
ness again. The unimaginable traces of themselves 
they left on the brain are too slight ever to permit their 
corresponding ideas to revive again. Few are the 
things chosen by recall out of the past, though many 
were the things that went into the composition of our 
past. And all this arrangement of nature is well. 
We never truly remember until we have forgotten; 
to remember everything in just the order it occurred 
and to repeat it so is to be mentally inefficient; the 
so-called redintegrating type of consciousness is both 
unlearned and untrained. To have forgotten the 
unessentials of the past, to have kept its essentials, 
this eliminates waste and gives mental perspective. 
The so-called forgotten influences the background and 
tone of consciousness, and, though the things learned 
have vanished, the brain retains the effect of once 
having learned. 

We may recognize how true this is in those feelings 
of familiarity which sometimes sweep over us in present 



Aiding Memory 129 

situations, as though precisely all this has happened 
before and is now being oddly repeated as if by mis- 
chance. It probably means only that old brain paths 
are being restimulated that were originally formed in 
situations similar to the present, the dissimilarities 
being beyond recall, and so permitting no discrimi- 
nation to appear between then and now. The upshot 
of the whole is that we are really different for every 
experience of hfe, but we are often unable to specify 
in what respect. The pupils who have studied have 
gotten more than they can say in the recitation or 
write in the examination; likewise no teacher can 
teach all he knows, and in order to teach a little, he 
must know much. 

The phrase "learning by heart" has considerable Learning 
currency, and probably has had ever since the early 
days when books were scarce and there were no libra- 
ries of reference. What the phrase ought to mean is, 
repeating exactly what the intelUgence has mastered. 
As such it is one of the valuable powers of mind. Too 
frequently, however, it merely means the unthinking 
rattling off of words by contiguous association. As 
such the words were gotten by mechanical repetition, 
and both the process and the result are bad, the mind 
not supporting the senses in acquisition, being passive 
instead of active, being impressed instead of growing, 
being encouraged to wander instead of to concentrate, 
and ending by being burdened with unassimilated lug- 
gage. Bad learning by heart is through sensation 
without intelligence ; good learning by heart is through 
sensation with intelligence. 



130 The Psychological Principles of Education 

It may be remarked in passing that there is a period 
in the pupil's life, before reason sets in, when he de- 
lights to learn by heart. At this time, in general 
during the grammar school period, the simple essen- 
tial facts that one ought to know in our world should 
be memorized. Professor Bain^ regards the years 
from six to ten as those of maximum brain plasticity. 
During the period characterized by the reign of 
memory things like dates, definitions, verses, maxims, 
bare facts, the multiplication table, etc., may be ac- 
quired with a positive delight, which later would be a 
dreadful bore. There is a time to remember and a 
time to cease from remembering, a time to forget 
and a time to reason, 
storing the I refer to the phrase "storing the memory" next, 
only that I may combat the literal acceptance of the 
figure of speech. Truly speaking, the memory is 
not a storehouse, it is not a chamber with pictures 
hung upon the walls; it is a certain type of mental 
activity. Pupils do not store their memories, they 
exercise their minds in getting and reproducing. The 
true repertory of knowledge learned in the past is not 
the memory, but the brain. Really we do not commit 
things to memory, but to the brain. The knowledge 
which we possess, but of which we are not thinking, 
is not safely stowed away in a faculty of consciousness 
called memory, to be delivered when called for, — 
it is represented by certain changes in the structure 
of our brain. And our memory is not a dimly lighted 
room in consciousness, but the present mental act of 

^ Bain, "Education as a Science," p. 186. 



Memory. 



Aiding Memory 131 

recall corresponding to the restimulation of old brain 
paths. What will happen to our memory on this 
physiological basis in a life to come is a philosophical 
question as interesting to the speculatively inclined as 
it is important for all/ 

Pupils often want to know of teachers if they shall Memorizing 
memorize the definitions. The attitude of teachers Definitions, 
varies greatly on this point, in fact, from a rigorous 
affirmative to a loose negative. I do not know any- 
thing particularly conclusive to write on this subject, 
and must simply add my opinion to the others. In any 
case the meaning of the definition should first be clearly 
apprehended. It is to be supposed that the author of 
the text has expressed this meaning in the most fitting 
way. Unfortunately this is not always the case. For 
example, in a dictionary itself of psychological terms 
I find the following definition of "association" (of 
ideas), a definition, too, in which two reputable authors 
had a hand, viz. ''A union more or less complete 
formed in and by the course of experience between the 
mental dispositions corresponding to two or more dis- 
tinguishable contents of consciousness, and of such a 
nature that when one content recurs, the other content 
tends in some manner or degree to recur also." My 
pupils in psychology are spared the memorizing of 
that definition. Consciousness should preserve the 
meanings of definitions only in the most fitting avail- 
able language, whether from the text or the teacher. 
Yes, memorize the definition if you first understand 

^ Cf. Professor James's Ingersoll Lecture on "Human Immor- 
tality." 



132 The Psychological Principles of Education 

it and it is a good one. And I should go one step fur- 
ther and say, pupils should also be encouraged to 
express the meaning of the definitions in their own best 
way. Only one who has himself attempted to define 
poetry will fully appreciate the attempt of another, 
like that of Stedman. Let me add that when we pass 
out of the region of definitions into that of reason- 
ing, memorizing has no place. For example, pupils 
should not be permitted to prove their geometrical 
theorems by a memory process, but only as a series of 
present perceptions. It is always better to change 
the letters of the text. 
" 9^^^™" I^ this connection let me pay my disrespect to "cram- 

ming" as an abuse of a rational memory. Cramming 
is the rapid gathering of information immediately 
before it is to be called for. It means less associations 
are formed with the other things in the mind, it means 
shallow and relatively impermanent brain paths, con- 
sequently the very quick loss from memory of what 
is so acquired, and also it means an inability to think 
with what is so gathered. We may be able to repeat 
it, we cannot apply it. The original probleni in the 
examination upsets the mind that has crammed its 
information. Better, far better, is the regular term 
preparation with its time for reflection, assimilation, 
and brain-growth. We sometimes surprise ourselves 
at coming back to a new piece of music with greater 
ease in it than when leaving it last, because mean- 
while the nervous system has grown in the direction 
in which it was exercised. Cramming eliminates the 
element of time necessary for the growth of the ner- 



Aiding Memory 133 

vous system. Among the many things pupils should 
know in advance while forming their habits of study 
are these facts about losing time under the expecta- 
tion of making up for it by a rapid cram later. 

It is very much to the discredit of the character of Examining 

Memory. 

our written exammations that they so strongly tempt 
pupils to cram. An examination should test the judg- 
ment of pupils as well as their memory. The half 
at least of every examination should test what the 
pupil can do, presupposing that he has learned, — 
original problems, sight translation, new questions, 
anything to test his efficiency as well as his memory. 
As it is, we sometimes have the spectacle of a pupil 
with a consciousness Hke a parrot receiving diplomas 
of proficiency from our schools and even colleges. 
Only nature's rich gifts, not the character of the exami- 
nations we set, save us from many more such. The 
vice of examining memory instead of testing judg- 
ment has crept even into the class-room, where our 
teaching is too much Hke an oral quiz on last night's 
study than the development of ideas on the subject 
treated by the text. 

Many of us, pupils and teachers alike, are in bond- Note-books 
age to the note-book. We are so anxious to get the 
thing down that we do not stop to get it. To have 
it in our notes we mistakenly suppose is to have it. 
Presently our shelf holds a big pile of well-filled note- 
books, and we ourselves are but little the wiser for 
having written things down so industriously. Perhaps 
the note-book is here to stay as a necessity, because 
we seem unable to keep in mind all we need. At 



and Memory. 



134 The Psychological Principles of Education 

this very moment I am writing from notes my objec- 
tions to notes. But granted the note-book is a perma- 
nent tool in our workshop, there is a more excellent 
attitude toward it than our habitual one. Like fire, 
a note-book is a good servant, but a bad master. It 
is a bad master when we are mentally content to have 
written the thing down; it is a good servant when we 
write down for actual future use the thing we have 
first comprehended. In listening to lectures or mak- 
ing reports on readings, it would help us to take down 
only the author's bare outline, and then fill in later 
with our own remembered account of what was heard 
or read. Only muscular skill, not mental improve- 
ment, is involved in being a long-hand stenographer. 
In a famous passage which arrested the attention of 
the Roman grammarian Quintihan, Plato has sug- 
gested that the very art of writing is inimical to mem- 
ory, which we are prepared to believe when we try 
to throw ourselves back into the period of oral trans- 
mission of Homer, even of the catalogue of ships. 
Though long, I will quote the passage itself as being 
the best comment on modern note-taking. According 
to the story, probably made by Plato himself, the Egyp- 
tian god Theuth was the inventor of many arts which 
he was recommending to Thamus, the king of Egypt. 
"But when they came to letters. This, said Theuth, 
will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better 
memories; it is a specific both for the memory and 
for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious 
Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always 
the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own in- 



Aiding Memory 135 

ventions to the users of them. And in this instance, 
you, who are the father of letters, from a paternal love 
of your own children have been led to attribute to 
them a quality which they cannot have; for this dis- 
covery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' 
souls, because they will not use their memories: they 
will trust to the external written characters and not 
remember of themselves. The specific which you 
have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to remi- 
niscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only 
the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many 
things and will have learned nothing : they will appear 
to be omniscient and will generally know nothing: 
they will be tiresome company, having the show of 
wisdom without the reality." ^ Commenting on the 
passage. Professor Jowett says, ''Socrates means to 
say, that what is truly written is written in the soul, 
just as what is truly taught grows up in the soul from 
within and is not forced upon it from without." 

Those who have in mind the result of our inquiry Memory 
in chapter VI on formal discipline will not be surprised Memories, 
now to read that there is no general improvement of 
the memory as a unitary faculty ; there is only particu- 
lar improvement of the memory as a function in con- 
nection with specific subjects. We have not a faculty 
of memory equally good for all matters, but a set of 
memories of unequal efficiency for dissimilar subjects. 
There is an historian's memory, a mathematician's 
memory, a business man's memory, a housekeeper's 
memory, a broker's memory, a train- starter's memory, 

^ "Phaedrus," 274 E, Jowett Tr., third edition. 



136 The Psychological Principles of Education 

and so on through the list of human occupations. 
Each one has a certain mental scheme of remembering 
according to his habitual occupation. The point is 
that the memory ability developed in one occupation 
is not transferable to a dissimilar occupation; the 
athlete's prodigious memory of records and scores does 
not enable him the better to keep his trigonometrical 
formulae. The improvement of memory in one subject 
does not necessarily improve it in all, just as strength- 
ening one link in a chain does not strengthen each 
other link. We must carefully limit the transfer of a 
cultivated mental ability from one subject to another; 
it cannot be done when the subjects are dissimilar; 
it can be done when the subjects are similar. 

From this latter fact we may take courage in cultivat- 
ing the memory, and in our reaction from the faculty 
psychology we must avoid a corresponding extreme in 
what we might call an atomic psychology. The faculty 
is no longer the unit : it would be just as great a mis- 
take to say one of the abilities of the faculty is the 
unit. The mind is the true unit; it can do different 
things like perceive, remember, conceive, etc., and 
it has different abilities in doing each thing, like re- 
membering, to accord with the character of the things 
dealt with and its own previous experience in that 
field. When any two fields are similar, an abihty is 
better in the second for having been practised in the 
first. For the application of this principle in matters 
of memory let me refer to the position of Professor 
Stout,* and quote his conclusion: *' Just in so far as 

^ Stout, "Manual of Psychology," pp. 442-446. 



Aiding Memory 137 

this interpenetration of mental dispositions exists, the 
exercise of the memory for certain experiences will 
improve the memory for analogous experiences. When 
a man has made a certain amount of progress in the 
learning of a foreign language, further progress is 
facilitated, just because he has become familiar with 
certain general characteristics of the language, which 
do not need to be learnt over again for every particu- 
lar case. Of course it does not follow that memory 
in general is improved by its exercise in this or that 
particular direction. The progress will only extend 
to analogous experiences in precise proportion to the 
degree of the analogy. Exercise of the memory in 
the study of languages will do little to improve it for 
the retention of chemical formulae." 

The subject of memory has sufficiently engaged us. Memory and 
As we leave it, realizing keenly its significance and Education, 
importance, it remains only to remark that memory 
is not the final nor the finest fruit of education. We 
keep habits better than deeds in mind ; we remember 
classes better than we recollect individuals; the re- 
sults of education in the form of specific knowledge 
pass early from us ; the contents of our school texts 
mostly escape us with years. All this shows that 
education really gives the mind a more efficient way 
of acting in the present situation than a possession to 
keep from out the past ; education gives mental method 
rather than mental content, though it gives mental 
content too. The practicable thing with the human 
type of mind is not to know all facts, but to know 



138 The Psychological Principles of Education 

when and how to observe them, the books that treat 
of them, and the living men to consult about them. 
Our education consists, not in what we can recollect 
of the information gathered in our school days, but in 
our sense of famiharity with the world's best, in a 
certain efficient method in attaining it, and in the 
stimulus to continuous advancement throughout life. 
Education is rather the freeing of personal force, the 
liberation of the self, that it may live and work in full 
relationship with men and things. Thus the memory 
is not the goal of the teaching process, it is one of the 
moments of conscious development. Out from it we 
must pass into the region of imagination, judgment, 
reasoning, feeling, and action. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. Elementary and Secondary Memory. 

2. The Physiological Explanation of Memory. 

3. The Conditions of a Good Memory, 

4. Distinctions between Memory, Recollection, Imagination, 

and Recognition. 

References on Memory 

Aiken, Methods of Mind Training, ch. III. 

Bain, Education as a Science, pp. 22-35. 

Baldwin, Mental Development, Methods and Processes, pp. 

279-307. 
Compayre. Psychology Applied, etc., ch. V. 
Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, ch. VIII. 
Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education, ch. XXIV. 
James, Talks to Teachers, ch. XII. 
Kay, Memory, ch. IX. 
Morgan, Psychology for Teachers, ch. II. 
Stout, Manual of Psychology, Book IV, ch. III. 



Aiding Memory 139 

Sully, Outlines of Psychology, ch. VII. 

For an estimation of Mnemonics, cf. James Mill, Analysis of the 
Human Mind, pp. 324-325; Dugald Stewart, Elements of 
the Philosophy of the Human Mind, ch. VI, § 7. 



CHAPTER XI 



EDUCATING THE IMAGINATION 



The 

Educational 
Neglect of 
the Imag- 
ination. 



The imagination is one of the rather neglected men- 
tal powers in modem schools. This neglect of the 
imagination is of a piece with the general poor estate 
of aesthetic education. The school life, particularly 
including the college, is too inhospitable to works of 
the imagination. The cultivation of the imagination 
is not emphasized by that education whose standard 
is fixed by the market-place. Modern education is 
tempted all along the line to conform to standards 
set by commerce and utility; in some cases it has 
openly yielded to the temptation and established schools 
for business. This latter is more than justifiable, for 
trade schools are both needed and in the open. The 
really dangerous thing is the way the trade spirit is 
insinuating itself into all educational effort. Of this 
"marketable ideal" of education in its attitude toward 
pupils, Professor Van Dyke observes, ''Their imagi- 
nation, that most potent factor of life, is intrusted to 
the guidance of the weekly story-paper, and their moral 
nature to the guidance of chance." ^ If we look among 
our own pupils for an imagination other than the growth 
of nature prompts, we shall probably agree with Lloyd 

^ Henry van Dyke, "Creative Education," in "Essays in Applica- 
tion," p. 223. 

X40 



Educating the Imagination 141 

Morgan that "the many do not cultivate their imagi- 
native faculty.'^ 

Apart from the influence of utilitarian standards, '^^^ kittle 

^ Store set 

and closer to the subject, there is the httle value which by it. 
teachers themselves are accustomed to attach to the 
child's feats of imagination. When the stories of the 
child's fancy come to the teacher's notice, they seem 
rather to need curtailment than enlargement. Such 
exaggerations often appeal to teachers as having in 
them an immoral element of prevarication. Conse- 
quently a frequent attitude of teachers is, the imagina- 
tion of children is something to be restrained, not 
developed. At this point it is necessary to remember 
the principle of modern education, not by repression, 
nor even by impression, but by expression; or, that 
older word of Mme. Necker, "we only restrain the 
imagination when we exercise it." As the commercial 
patron of the school needs to learn the values other 
than financial, so the teacher needs to learn that the 
imagination of children may be the wings whereby 
we rise instead of the burden that weighs us down. 

In contrast with both these attitudes, let us main- The impor- 

1 1 • • • • r 1 tance of 

tain that the imagination is really one of the most imagination, 
important of human gifts, and so most deserving of 
educational care. The imagination is both a pleasure 
and a benefit to all classes of men. By its aid poetry 
is written, music is composed, pictures are painted, 
statuary is carved, and architectural piles are planned. 
Here are the pleasures and, indeed, the best benefits 
of man, as the soul is of more value than the body. 
But it is also true, and this the educational utilitarian 



142 The Psychological Principles of Education 

seems to miss, that by its aid the tradesman anticipates 
fashions, the farmer forecasts his harvest, the miner 
digs for gold, the diver seeks for pearls, the explorer 
pushes into an unmapped continent, the discoverer 
finds a new world, and the man of science fixes the 
place of our planet in the universe of space. By its 
aid, too, religion has conceived another world than 
the sense world, and boldly declares that the unseen 
is the eternal, and that God is invisible. 

To all classes of men imagination is both a joy and 
a help, whether artists, scientists, religionists, or utili- 
tarians. For the mathematicians D'Alembert has 
spoken, ''The truth is, to the geometer who invents, 
imagination is not less essential than to the poet who 
creates." The psychological explanation of this im- 
portance of imagination is the very large place that 
imagery occupies in all consciousness. As Professor 
Royce has it : "The sensory experience and the imagery 
of any moment, when taken together with the state 
of feeling of that moment, constitute the mental ma- 
terial of the moment; and that, too, whether we are 
thinking of the loftiest or of the most trivial matters. 
The cultivation of the right mental imagery conse- 
quently constitutes a very important aspect of mental 
training." ^ 

stages of One of the first things for the teacher to do in cul- 

Develop- ^. . . , , . . , . , 

mentofthe tivatmg right mental imagery is to understand the 
Imagination, imagination of pupils, to get adjusted to the imagina- 
tive outlook that characterizes his pupils, to be able 

^ Royce, "Outlines of Psychology," p. 158. 



Educating the Imagination 143 

to recognize the stages in the development of the imag- 
ination. In general these stages are three, corre- 
sponding crudely to childhood, youth, and manhood. 
The imagination of childhood may be characterized Childhood, 
as exuberant; it draws little or no distinction between 
fact and fancy, its exaggerations are not falsehoods, and 
its wonderful creations appear thoroughly real to con- 
sciousness. It is the great period for fairy stories, 
Santa Claus, epics, stories of the martyrs, and the like. 

The imagination of youth may be characterized Youth. 
as idealizing. The distinction is drawn between ap- 
pearance and reahty, but the future and unknown 
reality is painted in roseate colors. The actual ex- 
periences of life are lifted up into the region of ideali- 
zation, and the large generous ideals of human nature 
are seeking realization in life. It is the period of the 
hero, of romance and adventure, of fiction and good 
history. 

The imagination of man may be characterized as Manhood, 
disciplined. Reahty has assumed a more sombre 
hue, the vision once so moving has become familiar, 
the light of common day is over all. The man travels 
more patiently toward his great and remote goal. 
It is the period of the artist, the prophet, the poet, 
the inventor, the discoverer, and the captains of finance 
and industry. The child's wonder-book, the youth's 
dreams, the man's purposes, — these mark the natural 
development of the imagination. To child and youth 
the teacher supplies that stimulus to the imagination 
which shall connect the labor of the man with the 
larger interests of our world. 



144 The Psychological Principles of Education 
The Types of Another thing for the teacher to make his own 

Imagination. , ,....,,. .. , 

about the imagination is that his pupils vary charac- 
teristically among themselves as to what sense-organ 
furnishes the basis for their mental images. To 
some it is the eye, to others the ear, to others the 
muscles, to others the sense of touch, and to a few per- 
haps it is still another sense-organ. Hence arise 
what the psychologist calls ''the types of imagination,' 
the visual, the audile, the motor, and the tactile bein^ 
the four most common. In the upper grades and th^ 
secondary school some special sense becomes increas 
ingly serviceable to each pupil as giving the cue tc 
his images of absent objects. His attention, in the 
words of Baldwin, "is best, most facile, most interest- 
carrying for some one preferred sense, leading fo) 
this sense into preoccupation and ready distraction.' 
The Visual A word of description about each of the more prom- 
inent types of imagination will put the situation con- 
cretely before us. Perhaps half our children are vis- 
uaHzers or eye-minded. Probably the reason of this 
large fraction is to be sought in the social importance 
attaching to sight, also in our largely visual method 
of instruction. These children are those who remem- 
ber things seen better than things gotten through 
any other sense; they learn preferably from copies, 
illustrations, drawings, and pictures; they keep things 
they read themselves better than things read aloud 
to them ; the past literally unrolls itself before the eye 
of the mind ; the future is mentally seen as in a pano- 
rama. As children and youth our visual imagination 
is better than in maturity, due to our decreasing in- 



Educating the Imagination 145 

terest in individual specimens and our increasing 
interest in general types as we become older. Galton 
discovered that the visual imagination of American 
students was better than that of Enghsh men of science. 
Women are better visualizers than men. Some of the 
first characters in human history have entertained 
visions, Joan of Arc for one. 
Next in number to the visualizers come the "audiles." The Audiie 

Type. 

These are the ear-minded pupils. As they remember 
they seem to hear again the sounds accompanying the 
original experience ; the voices of their friends sound 
in their ears, the past speaks to them its messages, 
they learn better what they hear than what they read, 
duty seems to call to them, and the cry for help reaches 
their ears from afar. Socrates must be written with 
the great ones of this list. 

Then there are "the motiles." These are the mus- The Motor 
cular-minded pupils. They can never get a thing ^^^* 
until they have done it themselves ; their thoughts of 
the past take the shape of images, some say sensations, 
of movement ; to think the word is to utter it ; to image 
the action is to begin to do it. Their bodies are all 
the while in a state of muscular reverberation to what 
is passing through consciousness. The spoken word 
is an auditory-muscular combination, and into this 
verbal type of imagination all the other types tend with 
habitual repetition to pass. 

Last of the types sufficiently pronounced to receive The Tactile 
special mention is "the tactiles." These are the touch- 
minded pupils, whose hands are their great instru- 
ment of knowledge and whose images take the form 



146 The Psychological Principles of Education 

of things felt. The deaf-blind mutes are perforce 
largely of the tactile type of imagination, with which 
the muscular may combine. Laura Bridgman and 
Helen Keller are the classic illustrations of how cul- 
ture may be communicated to the mind through the 
hand and show no sign in its quality of its unusual 
origin. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I am better 
than thou." 
General jj^ Summarizing our account of the types of the 

Facts about ° •' ^ 

the Types. imagination it is to be observed that each normal 
individual belongs to some extent to all the types, tends 
indeed to image anything in terms of its dominant 
quality, whatsoever be the sense to which that domi- 
nant quality appeals. To all the image of a bell is 
somewhat auditory, of a portrait somewhat visual, 
of the sea somewhat muscular, of velvet somewhat 
tactile, of an apothecary shop somewhat olfactory, etc. 
But it is also true that each individual tends increas- 
ingly to conform to one or two of the main types. 
And further it is true that any one type may be cul- 
tivated through attention and practice. 

The Use of jv^qw the practical question arises as to what use 

the Types in ^ c ^ ^ . . . 

Educating, cau be made of these types of imagmation among our 
pupils in educating them. The first thing to observe 
is that the types are perhaps congenital in origin. 
This means that we as teachers can train, but hardly 
change, the types that nature has given us and our 
pupils. Those whose consciousness nature intended 
to entertain auditory images cannot under our effort 
become visualizers, and those whom nature intended 



Educating the Imagination 147 

to get things through their hands and muscles cannot 
by us satisfactorily acquire through the hearing of the 
ear. What is here true of the types of images in par- 
ticular is also true of all inherited capacities, — edu- 
cation can neither add to nor subtract from them, 
but only bring them to the front. 

It has been suggested that we discover the type or 
types of our individual pupils, and appeal to each 
separately according to his natural gift. This sounds 
attractive, but in practice it would probably turn out 
specious. In view of the number of pupils that face 
the average teacher, in view also of the educational 
demand that pupils be developed on their weak as 
well as strong sides, this suggestion is hardly practi- 
cable. But in view of the types of imagination pres- Appeal to all 
ent before us in any class, the demand is all the more 
insistent upon us that we appeal to all the senses of 
all, if by any means we may reach some. 

It is fundamental to note that all imadninff presup- invagination 

° ^ ^ ^ presupposes 

poses sensing. A man bom blind has no images of Sensation 
sight, one bom deaf no images of sound, or one born 
with senses intact which, however, have never been 
really opened to the messages of the world has a defi- 
cient imagination. The more sensations children at- 
tentively receive, the more different senses are brought 
into play, the richer and broader will be the developed 
imagination. The imagery of to-day is the effect of 
the sensory experience of yesterday. 

Train the imagination too by action. The mus- and Action, 
cular or motile element is a part of the images of such 
objects as knife, pen, dictionary, clouds, curling smoke, 



148 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Bring out the 
Characteris- 
tic Quality. 



The Use of 

Certain 

Subjects. 



flying bird, marching, dancing, singing, etc. Exer- 
cise the motor side of the nervous system. The imag- 
ination will be stimulated by acting out the history 
or reading scenes, by dramatic entertainments, by 
vivacious story-telHng, by play and games, and by 
all kinds of constructions with blocks, sand, wood, 
and metal. To do something is not only to stimulate, 
but also to ballast, the imagination. 

Since we tend to imagine a thing in terms of its 
characteristic quality, teaching should bring to the 
fore the characteristic qualities of things, as the roar 
of Niagara, the vision of Mt. Blanc, the surge of the 
sea, the smoothness of the marble statue ''finished to 
the nail," the level extent of the prairie, etc. Make it 
easy for the imagination to grip the essential quality 
of the things taught, and some kind of image of the 
thing taught should be gotten by every child's mind. 

Certain subjects are particularly serviceable in train- 
ing imagery. Stories may be illustrated by the pupil's 
own drawing; reading should be accompanied with 
inward vision; exclusive reading of illustrated papers 
and magazines should be avoided as giving the imag- 
ination nothing to do; the descriptions of natural 
scenes in fiction should not be skipped in reading; 
the operations in arithmetic should be inwardly imaged ; 
the essential features of a continent in geography the 
same; the scenes of past history should be re-lived in 
the imagination ; the drawing courses make for clearer 
images^ and so for clearer thinking ; and for the muscle- 

^ A little fellow very busily engaged was asked by his teacher what 
he was drawing. " A picture of the Lord," he said. Remonstratingly 



Educating the Imagination 149 

minded boys and girls manual training and domestic 
science are indispensable. Unfortunate indeed is that 
prosaic mind to which facts are facts and nothing 
more, words are just words with no image to enlighten 
their dull look, to which Tennyson's lines convey an 
idea, but not a vision, as he writes — ^ 

And Mom 
Has lifted the dark eyelash of the Night 
From off the rosy cheek of waking Day. 

The images that possess consciousness may be of The Two 

, 11 . 11 11 Kinds of 

thmgs that actually exist, events that have actually imagination. 
occurred, or they may be of non-actual, ideal, con- 
structed things, events, and scenes. We may image 
men, women, and animals that have been seen, or 
centaurs, satyrs, grifhns, and mermaids that have not 
been seen. The musical composer may image an old 
piece or a piece as yet unwritten. Thus are illustrated 
the two kinds of imagination, the reproductive and the 
productive. The reproductive imagination fills con- 
sciousness with images of past experiences. The 
productive imagination combines past experiences in 
new forms ; it can create, not de novo, but only by order- 
ing existent elements in new ways. What separates 
the genius in art, invention, science, or religion from 
the plain man is his ability to order experience in non- 
habitual fashion. As reproductive imagination is so 
closely allied to memory, already discussed, we will 

the teacher said, "I wouldn't draw a picture of the Lord, I don't 
think we know how He looks." "Well, you will know when I get 
through drawing this picture," was the confident reply. 



150 The Psychological Principles of Education 

at once pass to the difficult yet inviting subject of train- 
ing the productive imagination. 

Training the Before the threshold of the subject a caution must 
Imagination, be given. Genius is one of nature's gifts, not a school- 
master's effect. The artist and inventor, the poet and 
discoverer, these are nature's work, not ours. They 
are born, not made. But being born they must be 
nurtured, and here is our function: not to create 
genius, but to develop it, not to make small minds 
great, but to permit greatness to come into its own. 
Genius in the This, then, is our first word. Let me remember 

Schoolroom. . • i • n/r-i i» 

that some gemus, some mute mglonous Milton, 
may be here before me. Expecting him, I shall soon 
or late find him, and when I have found him, mine 
it is to discover him to himself, to direct him aright, 
to give him room. Give place to the free activity 
of endowed youth. In his behalf work a miracle of 
intervention in the grinding mechanism of the school. 
The great grow, they are not moulded. In its refusal 
to adjust itself to embryonic greatness, the school has 
lost to itself many a master mind that afterwards rises 
up to condemn it. Some of the greatest constructive 
intellects in England and America, in philosophy, 
science, and statesmanship, are not products of the 
schools. Not many teachers have the fortune of Saul 
in finding a kingdom while looking for asses. It is 
said that an old German teacher named Trebonius 
was accustomed to greet his little company of pupils 
with a bare head and a reverent bow : one of the boys 
before him was little Martin Luther. 



Educating the Imagination 151 

It helps the productive imagination when we are Appreciation. 
able to secure the appreciation of studies. Like is 
nourished by Uke. Whatever the imagination has 
produced, the imagination should enjoy. It is possible 
to describe a tear as NaCl + H2O ; moreover such 
description has the advantage of being valid for all 
tears; it also is a very teachable formula; but the 
appreciation of a tear means both emotion and im- 
agination. In hterature we need, perhaps, not less 
scanning and spelling and parsing and etymologizing, 
but more enjoyment and feeling and imaginative in- 
terpretation. The ideas in poetry are, of course, to be 
comprehended, even repeated perchance, but not to 
the neglect of rhythm, metre, reading aloud, expres- 
sion, visual and auditory and even muscular images, 
and beauty. Our vocal music, again, makes thoughts 
primary, whereas harmony, melody, time, phrasing, 
and what Mozart described as the best part of music, 
"feeling it all at once," should have no secondary place. 
Even in the courses in science, w^here observation would 
seem to exclude im_agination, the world is as truly 
wonderful and to be loved as it is factual and to be 
understood. And dry old mathematics, as so many 
regard it, is really replete with a marvellous symbol- 
ism all its own, capable, as Plato showed, of giving 
wings to consciousness whereby it rises above the par- 
ticulars of sense. As for history and the ancient lan- 
guages, it is only the imagination that can bring those 
remote periods near and make heroes real. 

Tom Dixon relates that when one of his boys finished 
his Caesar, his mother asked him, 



152 The Psychological Principles of Education 

"'Do you think you would know Julius Caesar now 
if you met him?' 

"A look of savage hate wrinkled his brow as he 
slowly replied : — 

" ' I'm not sure. But I'll tell you one thing, if I 
should happen to meet him, nobody else would ever 
know him! '" 

It is safe to say this boy neither came, nor saw, 
nor conquered with Caesar. The life of any past is a 
present possession only as the imagination enkindles it. 
Exercise the The produciug powers of consciousness need more 
Powers. exercise in school-life, and the reproducing powers 
less. Encourage story-inventions, permit personal 
creations in drawing and manual training, get up a 
sentiment in favor of writing verse, have English themes 
written only on subjects about which pupils know 
something personally and in which they have some 
interest, imitate the best literary models in writing 
compositions, have a school paper, plant a school 
garden, make a school exhibit, etc. Pupils find 
themselves, not only in facts, but also in acts. 
Begin Young. And begin young. It is said that the great musi- 
cians come from the country of cradle songs. The 
story is the perennial teacher of children in home and 
school, even to the hundredth repetition. The imagina- 
tion of children should grow by feeding upon the great, 
simple, natural, and attractive wonders, like fairies, 
elves, animals, heroes, and gods, and it should be care- 
fully protected from all grewsome things, v like hob- 
goblins, witches, evil spirits, and c^^ea^iires of the 
darkf In the dark these frightful objectl.lf th^ inxagi- 



Educating the Imagination 153 

nation are real to the child, the eye not being able to 
contradict the mind's image. Even we feel better in 
a dark room after we have found the electric button. 
The modern civilization has been at great pains to 
banish fear, and the modern child has the right not to 
be made afraid. 

Of all things avoid an indulged and disordered imagi- -^^^'^ ^ 

, , . , 1 . -.. Disordered 

nation, such as that given by the excessive reading imagination. 
of cheap literature. Our girls had better a hundred 
times be relieving a case of distress around the corner 
than sobbing over the sad fortunes of fictitious heroines. 
Active work tempers the imagination to true ends. 
Labor gives us the sense of reality, keeps alive our sense 
of truth, and turns the imagination into profitable 
channels. 
And in this matter of awakening imagination, a Theimagi- 

1 • • 1 • • • TTT1 native 

great thing is to be imaginative ourselves. Why not Teacher. 
let the lights of fancy play across the schoolroom? 
No mechanical prescription will avail, no set time in 
the schedule can be dedicated successfully to the 
imagination; rather its unannounced visits must be 
welcome at any moment. Happy indeed is the lot of 
the pupils who sit at the feet of an imaginative teacher, 
and thrice happy that teacher who discovers an imagi- 
nation to itself. His service to the world is none the 
less because it is at one remove, and it is right that 
his heart should secretly glow at the thought that 
through him one hand received its cunning, one ear 
heard the music of the spheres, or one eye saw the light 
that never was on land or sea. There is an old Gre- 
Q^ll §tor^ that I have all but forgotten^ and cannot 



1 54 The Psychological Principles of Education 

now locate, to the effect that the great ones of a certain 
place were once presenting themselves before Zeus, 
that the greatest should be crowned. In the company 
that had assembled to witness the honor bestowed, 
their teacher was also present, following up with 
interest the fortunes of his pupils. To the surprise 
of all, and most to himself, who was not a candidate 
for the honor, Zeus announced, ''Crown the faithful 
teacher; he is greatest of all, for he made them all 
great." 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Nature of Reproductive Imagination. 

2. The Nature of Productive Imagination. 

3. The Physiological Explanation of each Kind of Imagination. 

4. The Influence of Imaginative Literature upon Pupils. 

References on Imagination 

Calkins, Introduction to Psychology, ch. XV. 

Compayre, Psychology applied to Education, ch. V. 

Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, ch. IX. 

Ejrkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, pp. 259-268. 

McCosh, The Cognitive Powers, pp. 184-195. 

Morgan, Psychology for Teachers, ch. IX. 

Oppenheim, Mental Growth and Control, ch. IX. 

Rosmini, Method in Education, pp. 334 and ff. (Tr. Grey.) 

Royce, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 148-161. 

Sully, The Teachers' Handbook of Psychology, ch. XI. 

Thorndike, Elements of Psychology, pp. 43-5°- 

Van Dyke, " Creative Education," in Essays in AppHcation. 



CHAPTER XII 

STIMULATING THE MIND TO CONCEIVE 

A FEW words first concerning the nature of concep- The Nature 
tion. Perhaps this nature may be most clearly recog- ception. 
nized if we contrast conception with perception. To 
see and recognize John Smith on the street is to have 
a perception, to think man is to have a conception; Contrast with 

, , . . , . Perception. 

to see a bay horse passmg is to have a perception, to 
think animal is to have a conception ; to recognize it 
to be my duty in the present crisis to speak the truth 
is an act of inner perception, to think the notion duty 
is to have a conception. Without further illustration 
we may state this contrast in the following fashion: 
perception is the knowledge of individual objects, 
conception is the knowledge of general objects; per- 
ception gives immediate experience, conception gives 
mediate or generalized experience ; and further it may 
be said that perception gives mental growth, while 
conception gives mental development ; that is, through 
perception we add to our store, and through concep- 
tion we come to think of it in new ways. 

To conceive of anything is thus to think it. And Definition of 
of any namable or describable thing it would be cor- 
rect to maintain that it is conceivable. In a psycho- 
logical sense of the term the word for which we shall 
have very little use is inconceivable. People use it 

^55 



Conception. 



156 The Psychological Principles of Education 

popularly, not in its strict sense of unthinkable, but to 
mean incredible or unimaginable. Because to conceive 
of anything is to think it, we have concepts of all kinds 
of things, such as individuals, particulars, concretes, 
abstracts, and universals. We can now have a concept 
of the John Smith we perceived on the street or the 
bay horse we saw passing ; that is, we may think those 
individuals. It is true that in the history of thought 
the term conception has been limited almost exclusively 
to having general notions, and still is. Thus Sully 
says, ''A concept is a representation in our minds 
answering to a general name ; " and even Baldwin's 
*' Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology," the latest 
authority on psychological nomenclature, defines con- 
ception as "cognition of a universal as distinguished 
from the particulars which it unifies." This associa- 
tion of conception and general notions goes back to 
the time of Socrates, who first discovered concepts, and 
to Plato, who eulogized and hypostatized them in his 
theory of the "ideas." But the essential thing about 
conceiving is not that the objects conceived shall be 
universals, but that the thing, whether universal or 
individual, shall be thought in its distinctness from 
other things. 
What Perhaps it will assist us in realizing that to conceive 

is°not. is to think if we briefly refer to a few things that con- 

ceiving is not. To conceive is not to have a mental 
image or picture; this is imagination; though for 
visualizers conceiving may be attended by vague com- 
posite photographs in consciousness, as it were, in case 
the object conceived is a universal. Again, a concept 



Stimulating the Mind to Conceive 157 

is not necessarily of the existent; we may conceive 
mountains of gold and pictures of silver, round squares 
and perpetual motion, but none of these things exist. 
And still again, let us not suppose that we can com- 
pletely comprehend anything we conceive ; to conceive 
is not necessarily to comprehend completely; we 
conceive the infinite and God without fully compre- 
hending either. 

At this point it becomes evident how wide is the ^^^ Extent 

of Concep- 

extent of our power to conceive. The sway of con- tion. 
ception includes all definitions, laws, problems, and 
objects of thought. All definitions are concepts: 
without the conceiving ability on the part of man 
there could be no dictionary. All laws, natural, civil, 
moral, are possible through conception; they imply 
the abiUty to think things in their essential similarities, 
to rise above the concrete experiences as they come, to 
separate off the accident from the essence. All prob- 
lems imply conception ; to have a problem and to feel 
it as one is impossible to a non-conceiving intelligence ; 
how to live, how to spend time, what occupation to 
follow, these are questions that confront only a con- 
ceiving intelligence. In short, we shall find no power 
of consciousness wider in scope than conception. 

At this thought we must pause to inquire whether Why should 

, T , r 11. ., the Mind be 

teachers nave any duty to perform toward their pupils stimulated 
as conceiving intelligences, whether this so compre- *° Conceive ? 
hensive human abiHty should be stimulated into ac- 
tivity through our effort. We cannot but answer tbe§e 



158 The Psychological Principles of Education 

questions aJSirmatively when we consider several 
things. In the first place, conceiving is a higher power 
of mind than perceiving, for, whereas perceiving gives 
us experience, conceiving takes it up and mediates it 
with thought, thus both bringing out a new power of 
consciousness and also making our experience signi- 
ficant. Secondly, conceiving is a mental economy, 
resolving many particulars into a few unities by dis- 
covering their links of similarity; conceiving strings 
the beads of perceptual experience. Thirdly, con- 
ceiving makes possible that later power of conscious- 
ness we shall discuss under reasoning, for to induce is 
a certain way of conceiving particulars, and to deduce 
is another way of conceiving universals. Fourthly, 
conceiving conditions the development of science, art, 
and morals, for in these regions general principles are 
involved, and the particulars are of value only as they 
embody principles; in art, for example, not the sub- 
ject chosen but its means of treatment is the important 
thing. And fifthly, it will encourage us in our efforts 
to fertilize the mind that it may conceive if we remem- 
ber that without cultivation the highest reaches of 
conception will not be attained at all. For the en- 
forcement of this consideration let me quote from 
Bain : — 

"Without much prompting, the child goes on accu- 
mulating classes of the first degree, and would go on 
to the end of his life in the same course. It is only by 
express teaching that it climbs to the higher degrees 
— to take cognizance of a piece of furniture, a too), 
a quadruped, a sum, a sensation, a society; and a 



Stimulating the Mind to Conceive 159 

very large part of teaching is occupied with this work. 
It comes up in season and out of season, and the 
teacher's resources should always be equal to it; at 
any rate he should know whether or not it is in his 
competence at the time. He cannot be too well in- 
formed as to the conditions of success in explaining 
and impressing a generality. Indeed, this is the central 
fact or essence of Exposition, properly so called." ^ 

Seeing the importance of doing it, we now ask the Howstim- 

, • 1 1 11 • 1 • ulate Con- 

practical question, now shall consciousness be stimu- sciousness to 
lated to conceive? The great first thing is to secure conceive? 
that the lesson after presentation be conceptuahzed. 
The new material is presented singly that it may be 
perceived; after such presentation it must be thought Conceptuai- 
as a whole; some general notion must be reached Lesson, 
which will unify the whole. Facts are first to be per- 
ceived as individuals; then they are to be explained 
and interpreted by principles. No lesson after being 
taught in its detail should be left without summariz- 
ing it in a single proposition. Perceptions fertihze 
the mind, which should then conceive and bring ideas 
to the birth. As the great old Pestalozzi said, ''It 
is the chief business of education to pass from dis- 
tinctly perceived individual notions to clear general 
notions." 

In developing concepts we cannot do better than Use the 

f ° ^ SocraticArt. 

attempt to imitate the maieutic art of Socrates. In 
the dialogue of Plato entitled " Thesetetus," Socrates 
describes himself as following his mother's profession 

^ "Education as a Science," p. 192. 



i6o The Psychological Principles of Education 

of midwifery, — only he brings ideas to the birth. 
A good example of Socrates at work is found in Plato's 
short and easy dialogue, the " Meno." Socrates exe- 
cuted his art by the question and answer method, lead- 
ing the mind on gradually from point to point until it 
reached the general notion. If, as he said, the Gor- 
gias of Plato taught the late Senator Hoar the art 
of cross-questioning as a lawyer, it and the other So- 
cratic dialogues will teach us much concerning the 
attractive art of pedagogical questioning. Only we 
must avoid the leading question so much indulged in 
by Socrates. 
Learn to Ncxt it is to be obscrvcd that exact general notions 

through come only through conduct. We get a better general 

Acting. notion of a play by seeing it acted than by reading it, 

and by taking part in it ourselves than by seeing it 
acted. We get a better general notio^i of an author's 
style through attempting to imitate it than through 
reading it. We get better notions of forms and figures 
when we make them than when we see or read about 
them. Particularly is it true of young minds that their 
concepts tend to be motor in character : the axe is what 
you cut with, the pen is what you write with, ''mem- 
ory is what you forget with," and "salt is what makes 
your potatoes taste bad when you don't put it on," 
etc. Action both originates and defines our concepts. 
The man who has never given anything has a very 
vague concept of what it is to be a philanthropist; 
the man who has never hoarded money has a very 
vague concept of what it is to be a miser; and the 
man who is not moral has great difficulty in appreciat- 



Stimulating the Mind to Conceive i6i 

ing that there is any morahty anywhere. Clear con- 
cepts everywhere are the product of vigorous action. 

It has just been observed that with young minds Lead Ado- 
particularly concepts arise through action. Now, older generalize 
pupils in the secondary school may be taught to gen- consciously. 
eralize consciously. That is, following the old psycho- 
logical account of the origin of conception through 
comparison, abstraction, and generalization, an ac- 
count applicable enough to fairly mature minds, 
adolescent pupils may be led to reach general notions 
consciously. Call for the evident principle in a cer- 
tain general's campaign, the essential meaning of a 
certain historic movement, like the revolt of the colo- 
nies, their federation, their later union. It is a great 
pleasure to consciousness to generalize, so much so 
that we need only to give the opportunity; then it 
will be our task to see that the facts are first known 
and then not violated as the mind rises to the general 
notion, — so much so that Lord Bacon has somewhere 
told us that the mind needs not so much wings by 
which to rise as weights to keep it down. Of course 
it cannot be too strongly emphasized that the indis- 
pensable prerequisite for any general notion is the 
particulars, percepts and actions, upon which it is 
founded. 

And vary the instances. Before naming the con- Vary the 

, , . . . Instances. 

cept 01 square, for example, show it m many sizes, 
materials, and objects. Before naming or defining 
the term graft that covers to-day such a multitude 
of sins in American life, illustrate it from the simplest 
to the highest types of violation of trust for personal 



1 62 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Discover 

Causal 
Relations. 



Cultivate 
Definition. 



ends. Instances that show contrasts will sharply 
define concepts, as round and square, virtue and 
vice, white and black, true and false, beautiful 
and ugly, etc. "The habit of assigning contrasts 
or opposites needs to coexist in the mind of every 
instructor, with the habit of quoting examples as 
particulars." ^ 

One of the commonest and most far-reaching of 
the concepts is that of cause and effect. Few con- 
cepts will unify experiences or historic periods better 
than causation. This concept views events under 
the form of time, and asserts the real unity of the ear- 
lier and later. The earher is the later in potential 
form, and the later is the earher in realized form. 
Everywhere there is identity between cause and effect 
except in time. The lightning is the electricity that 
was in the cloud, the thunder is the air vibrations 
set in motion by the electric discharge, the wet ground 
is the earher rain in the new position time gives it, 
and so on. If we think of the effect as the transformed 
energy of the cause, we shall have it. This concept 
will serve pupils in conceiving the unities in experience 
as few others can, and the hunt for the cause will be 
one of the most stimulating intellectual pursuits in 
which classes can engage. 

Further, let me suggest that we seek to cultivate the 
art of striking definition. The proper place for a defi- 
nition is after the thing to be defined has been reached 
and named, is after our inquiry is over, as Kant said. 
A definition should sum up, not initiate, an inquiry. 

^ Bain, op. cit. p. 195. 



Stimulating the Mind to Conceive 163 

To begin with, a definition is hkely to prejudice the 
investigation. First the facts observed, then the con- 
cept reached, then the term defined, — this is the 
natural order. Too many terms remain undefined 
both by us and by our pupils. Try yourself now on 
the exact meaning of such common terms as science, 
evolution, education. Define well yourself, and get 
your pupils to define ; and to define well you will 
make use first of percepts and acts, then of words. It 
should be kept in mind that a logical definition 
states the genus to which the thing defined belongs 
and the differentia which distinguishes it from the 
other species belonging to the same genus, as in 
Aristotle's famous definition of man as a rational 
animal. 

And my last suggestion is that the teacher make an Tabulate the 

. . . Ill Present Con- 

expenmental mvestigation of the conceptual knowl- ceptuai 
edge of his class. Make a fist of the leading concepts ^'J^jJ^f^^ 
of your subject and discover what the class already 
knows of their meaning. Such an investigation will 
show you both where to begin and how to proceed. 
We take too much for granted in dealing v/ith our 
pupils, regularly assuming they know more about the 
elemental concepts of which we speak than they do. 
Such an investigation as this is the more necessary 
when pupils have studied our subject with other teach- 
ers before coming to us. As an illuminating example 
of such an investigation as is here recommended, I 
append the following table : ^ — 

^ Taken from Kirkpatrick, "Fundamentals of Child Study," 
p. 274. 



164 The Psychological Principles of Education 
Per cents of ignorance of Boston children entering school : — 



Robin . . . . 


. . 60.5 


Ankles . . 


. • 65.5 


Pig 


. . 47-5 


Elbows . . 


. . 25.0 


Chicken . . . 


• • 33-5 


Dew . . . 


. . 78.0 


Elm tree . . . 


• • 91-5 


Woods . . 


. • 53-5 


Wrist . . . . 


• • 70-5 


Hill . . . 


. . 28.0 



Having these and similar facts in mind, we realize 
better what the problem in the elementary grades is, 
and why President Hall should be led to say, "The 
best preparation parents can give their children for 
good school training is to make them acquainted with 
natural objects, especially with sights and sounds 
of the country." 



Problems for Further Study 

Plato's Theory of the Ideas. 

ReaHsm and Nominalism. 

The Old and the New Theory of the Origin of Concepts. 

Concepts and Language. 



References on Conception 

Bain, Education as a Science, pp. 191-197. 

Baldwin, Methods and Processes, pp. 322-332. 

De Garmo, Essentials of Method, pp. 18-23. 

Dewey, Psychology, pp. 204-213. 

Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education, pp. 37-42, 78-89, 

and ch. 26. 
Royce, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 285-292. 
Schaeffer, Thinking and Learning to Think, ch. VIL 
Smith, Methods of Knowledge, ch. IV. 
Sully, Outlines of Psychology, ch. IX. 

Sully, Teachers' Handbook of Psychology, chs. XII and XIII. 
Taylor, The Study of the Child, chs. XII or XVII. 
Tompkins, The Philosophy of Teaching, pp. 183-198. 
Welton, The Logical Bases of Education, pp. 220-234. 



CHAPTER XIII 

TRAINING THE MIND TO JUDGE 

" The faculty of judgment is a special talent which ^ant quoted. 
cannot be taught, but must be practised. This is what 
constitutes our so-called mother-wit, the absence of 
which cannot be remedied by any schooling. For 
although the teacher may offer, and, as it were, graft 
into a narrow understanding plenty of rules borrowed 
from the experience of others, the faculty of using them 
rightly must belong to the pupil himself, and without 
that talent no precept that may be given is safe from 
abuse." ^ 

Every teacher of experience will agree with these 
wise words of the great Kant. We are come, not to 
teach, but to practise the judgment of our pupils. In 
order that we may be prepared to consider the ques- 
tion of how to practise the native judgment of our 
pupils, let us briefly note the nature of judgment, the 
causes of false judgment, and the advantages of having 
a practised judgment. 

A judgment when expressed in language is what The Nature 

. „ 111.. of Judgment. 

the grammarians call a sentence, and the logicians a 
proposition. Both the sentence and the proposition 
are objective manifestations of the mental act of judg- 

^ Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason," p. 133, MuUer Tr. 
165 



1 66 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Judgment 
the Elemen- 
tal Act of 
Intelligence. 



ing. It is the business of the psychologist to go behind 
the sentence and the proposition in order to discover 
what the mind has done that gets expression in these 
ways. Upon introspection we shall probably find 
that in judging the mind makes some assertion con- 
cerning reality. Judgment is ' ' the mental function 
and act of assertion or predication." ^ Upon examina- 
tion we shall further find that these assertions we are 
continually making about things and one another are 
either affirmative or negative; we assert either that 
things go together or that they do not. Or, as Professor 
Royce puts it : '' When we judge, we accept or reject a 
given proposed portrayal of objects as adequate, or as 
fitting its own purpose." ^ To accept the description 
of man as rational and mortal, to reject the description 
of man as infallible and perfect, is to judge. 

At this point we must note that intelligence all along 
in its development, beginning even with sensation, has 
been struggling to know the truth, has been reaching 
out after reality. In judgment at last consciousness 
becomes able actually to make assertions as to what 
the reahty is with which it has been dealing all along. In 
fact, it would be correct to say that judging is imphcit 
in all the preceding stages of intellectual development. 
It is true that the responses of intelligence to reality 
so far have been rather unconscious than clearly con- 
scious of themselves ; nevertheless, in every stage intel- 
ligence has been making such responses as it could to 
reality. A sensation is the response of intelligence to 

^ Baldwin's Dictionary. 

^ "Outlines of Psychology," pp. 292-293. 



Training the Mind to Judge 167 

stimulation; perception is the repeated response of 
intelligence to sensation ; conception is the response of 
intelligence to repeated perception; memory and the 
reproductive imagination are the response of intelligence 
to its past; and the productive imagination is the 
response of intelHgence to the future or to ideal values. 
Everywhere the judging activity has underlain the work 
of intelligence. At last this judging activity becomes 
conscious of itself in making assertions about the nature 
of reahty. It is having such thoughts as these in mind 
that has led Professor Dewey to speak of judgment as 
"the typical act of intelHgence " ; or Professor Creighton 
to describe judgment as "the elementary process of 
thought" ; or Dr. Everett to write, ''with the judgment 
we first enter the realm of objective reality." For an 
ampHfication of this brief account of the nature of judg- 
ment recourse must be had to the works on logic. 

Every judgment intends to be true ; no man seeking Causes of 
the truth intends to deceive himself. The judgment judgment, 
that he has reached appeals to him as true. Never- 
theless, it frequently happens, as we all know, that 
judgments may be false ; it has turned out that we were 
honestly mistaken. Could we but eliminate false judg- 
ments, by so much the more should we know the 
truth. It will help us to enumerate some of the causes 
of false judgments. 

Before doing so it may be well to draw certain The Falsity 

T • • TTT -I 1 1 • 1 -1 of Judgments 

distmctions. We have seen that the judgment is the and the 
subjective mental act of assertion concerning reahty falsehood of 

•' ^ ^ ^ o J Propositions. 

that gets its objective expression in a sentence or 



1 68 The Psychological Principles of Education 



proposition. Now a judgment may be false, but it 
cannot be a falsehood, while a proposition may be a 
falsehood. The proposition which intentionally mis- 
represents my judgment is a falsehood, and as such is 
reprehensible; a judgment at worst can be only false, 
while intending all the while to reach the truth. We are 
not discussing the causes of falsehood, or why men lie, 
but the causes of false judgments, or why they make 
honest mistakes when aiming to state the truth. 

Now the causes of false judgments are many ; let us 
enumerate five, viz. lack of observation, lack of re- 
flection, mental dependence on others, prejudices, 
and lack of experience in the field of the judgment. 
Lack of observation warns us against neglect of facts 
in making our judgments. Really, the first thing to 
do is to get the data, then judge. This is so obvious 
that it would seem unnecessary to mention it, did not 
we all tend so strongly to pass judgments out of the 
fulness of our ignorance. Most of the adverse criti- 
cisms on people we let slip ''the barrier of our teeth,'* 
to use a Homeric expression, are without knowledge of 
the facts involved. 

Lack of reflection warns us against mental haste in 
reaching our conclusions. The facts must not simply 
be at hand; they must also be thought through. It 
is not easy to think; in fact, really to think is one of 
the most diflicult feats our intelligence accomplishes. 
We are altogether deluded as to the amount of thinking 
we really do, and it would be both true and surprising 
to say that many of us have never devoted a solid hour 
to serious reflection upon any diflicult problem in life. 



Training the Mind to Judge 169 

On the contrary, our time is mostly taken up with snap- 
shot judgments, the jumping at conclusions, and the 
thoughtless expression of opinion. We ought to agree 
with the judgment of Cicero, ''to think is to live," at 
least to the extent of making thinking a part of our 
living. Our judgments would certainly be by so much 
improved. 

Mental dependence on others warns us against not Mental 

^ " Dependence. 

thinking for ourselves, and merely reflecting as in a 
mirror the opinion of others. Thus the false judg- 
ments of others are deHvered by us, and the true 
judgments of others, not being thought through by us, 
are misunderstood and so passed on into circulation. 
The logicians warn us against the fallacy of appealing 
to authority, argumentum ad verecundiam, and Schopen- 
hauer writes one of the most powerful of his essays on 
''Thinking for Oneself." Look it up ! Aristarchus in - - /■ 

the third century B.C. said the earth was not the physical 
centre of the universe, but the authorities got the better 
of him till Copernicus came. Discovery and inven- 
tion, the Newtons and the Whitneys, are impossible 
where the fashion rules of thinking as others think. 
The temptation is peculiarly strong to do so in all the 
conservative regions of human nature, as in rehgious 
matters. Certain systems of religion and education are 
in danger of cultivating the very mental subserviency 
they should avoid; as Macaulay somewhere says, in 
effect, of the Jesuits, they found the point up to which 
mental cultivation could be carried without reaching 
mental independence. 

Of prejudices as a cause of false judgments it is not Prejudices. 



lyo The Psychological Principles of Education 

necessary that much be said either to clarify or em- 
phasize the point. The word itself indicates that a 
prejudice is a prejudgment. Our prejudices are 
usually emotional, not rational, in character, and of 
them Descartes, that clear thinker and founder of 
modem philosophy, remarks somewhere that "a man 
can more easily bum down his own house than get rid 
of his prejudices." Like jealousy, they make the food 
they feed upon; like spiders, they live where there is 
no food to feed upon. To what one of us has it ever 
occurred to estimate truly the virtues of my enemy? 
It is proverbial that every question has two sides, but 
our side usually contents us. The wise Bacon enu- 
merated four kinds of "idols" that beset the human 
reason; the second kind is those of "the Cave" ; every 
man views the world through the uncertain opening of 
his own cave; Bacon meant by the "idols of the Cave" 
our prejudices. 
Lack of And lastly, lack of experience in the field of judg- 

ment is a common cause of false judgments. Prob- 
ably we are all experts at something, but not at 
everything. To pass judgment beyond our own field 
is hazardous. Perhaps the many "symposiums" in 
newspapers and magazines err from this cause as 
much as from any other; it is apparently thought that 
because a man has won prominence in one line his 
opinion will be valuable in all lines. The false-hearted 
man's judgment about society is worthless, for it takes 
an honest man to recognize an honest man. Plato with 
great acumen makes the physicians in his ideal society 
of weak bodies that they may the better judge <:on- 



Experience. 



Training the Mind to Judge 171 

earning the diseases of their patients, but his legal 
judges he keeps free from the taint of corrupt practices, 
for no man is a better moral judge for being immoral ; 
to judge sin it is not necessary to have been a sinner; 
to judge a righteous man it is necessary to be righteous. 
These, then, are some of the causes of false judgment. 
Fortunate are we if, knowing them, we may avoid 
them. 

The contrast to the matter of false judgments ap- 'P\^ 

•' ° ^ Advantages 

pears as we now come to think of the advantages of a of a Trained 
practised or trained judgment. Upon reflection it will ^^ gn^^nt. 
appear that these advantages are at least four, viz. 
efficiency, individuality, self-confidence, and social ser- 
vice. A trained judgment increases the efficiency of a Efficiency, 
man. When the problems of living arise for settle- 
ment, he knows what to do and advise. The judg- 
ment is the mind's to'ol for life; rare enough are the 
men whose judgment is a dependable tool. 

A trained judgment adds to the individuality of a individuai- 
man, making him intellectually independent and self- 
reliant, and preserving him from essential subjection 
to an authority other than his own. Rare, too, are the 
persons whose judgment is really something more than 
the mirror of other men's minds; like '^una with the 
bastard light," they are good reflectors. Our judg- 
ment should be our torch, not our mirror. Even in 
seeking the counsel of others our own judgment should 
appear in selecting those to whom to go. 

A trained judgment also increases our self-confidence, Seif- 

1 • . 11 n ir • -r . ii confidencc. 

makmg us mtellectually self-respectmg. It is no small 



172 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Social 
Service. 



equipment for living to have a certain sense of mental 
mastery over circumstances, to be able to conquer 
through applied knowledge, using the facts of nature 
for our purposes, and comprehending the inwardness 
of the acts of men for mutual benefit. 

And lastly, a trained judgment, to him that has the 
disposition, admits of large social service. There is 
always need of the moralized intellectual giant to bring 
order out of human confusion. In our day especially 
there is need of a sociaHzed judgment with a conscience 
behind it. The times are overripe for the wise solver 
of the problems of social righteousness, who will not 
simply tell us the way, but be our way. Old forces 
with power enough resident in them to save the in- 
dividual in his private Hfe need to be applied to saving 
that same individual in his public life. 



Suggestions 
for the 
Teacher. 



Subordinate 
Information. 



Independent 
Thinking. 



That we as teachers may do what we can to provide 
society with such efficient servants, there are certain 
things to which we must attend day by day in our 
work. First, then, subordinate in importance the 
knowledge of the fact to the ability to judge concern- 
ing the fact. Discover the bearings, the relationships, 
the applications of the fact. This means that knowl- 
edge passes over into wisdom. As the use of money is 
more important than acquiring it, so is use of knowl- 
edge. To follow this one suggestion would mean that 
we teach the subject less and the pupils more, securing 
from them the expression of opinion close upon the 
recital of facts. 

Second, cultivate in pupils the habit of independent 



Training the Mind to Judge 173 

thinking. Ask such questions as necessitate it, and be 
inwardly discontent until you have secured it. From 
a theme of one of my summer pupils, a practical teacher, 
I quote the following : "In a class in Mediaeval History, 
in a lesson on the persecution of the Christians, the 
lecturer walked into the room and as he took his seat 
he looked up at me from his roll book and said, 'Miss 

, if you had been the Emperor of Rome, would 

you have persecuted the Christians?' That one ques- 
tion has meant more to me than any one book on applied 
psychology that I have read since." And as we read 
the question, it is still provoking thought. When a 
diffident pupil has met us with his independent opinion, 
deal with it gently. Entertain originaHty hospitably. 
The very aim of the class-room work is not uniform 
knowledge, but multiform thinking. 

Third, do not tell the class what to think, -— this is ^^''^^t the 

1 • 1 1- 1 . Thinking. 

dogmatism, with us the authority, but direct their 
thinking, hesitating not to express your own opinion 
at the right time. Our class-room discussions are not 
so much to settle things as to arouse the investigating 
spirit. For young people to be on the hunt for truth 
is transcendently more important than for them to 
suppose they have learned it. And why is not the 
statement equally applicable to ourselves? It is an 
error to suppose that the class comes out right, when 
we tell them what is right ; teaching is not telhng, it is 
stimulating. 

Fourth, consider the text-book a guide to be under- The Text a 

^ ^ ' ^ • , rr,, • ^ Guide. 

stood, not an authority to be memorized. This for 
teacher and pupils alike. For the teacher to dare to 



174 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Practise ! 



The Mean 
between 
Authority 
and Inde- 
pendence. 



disagree, and to know enough to do so successfully, 
will mark an era in that class-room. Be continually 
making contributions to the text; your pupils will 
thrive in such a bracing atmosphere. The real teacher 
is not the teacher of a book, but the teacher of the truth, 
using books only to supplement his teaching. 

Fifth, following the suggestion of the wise Kant in 
the opening quotation, practise the judgment. The 
mind judging is the mind asserting what is true, feeling 
what is beautiful, or sensing what is good. The element 
of judgment appears in science, in art, and in morality. 
Judgment in matters of art is usually called taste, and 
in matters of morahty, conscience. To practise the 
judgment, then, it is necessary in science to hunt for the 
truth, classify new specimens, find the meanings of 
things, and, passing into philosophy, intuite the unity 
of reality. In art it is necessary to estimate beautiful 
things of nature and man, seeking out the ideal they 
embody, and determining the degree of success with 
which the material manifests the ideal. In history, 
biography, and literature it is necessary to estimate the 
motives and conduct of the characters studied, so far as 
these are easily accessible. In the works of the pro- 
ductive imagination this is easy to do, as the characters 
He open before us. One's self-respect tends to prevent 
his doing what he does not excuse in another. 

Sixth, to avoid a youthful self-sufficiency while 
securing the original expression of opinion, it is necessary 
to strike the golden mean between independence and 
authority. The young child is entirely under authority 
in his thinking, influenced by associates, parents, and 



Training the Mind to Judge 175 

teachers. The mature man ought to do his own think- 
ing. The transition from childhood to manhood is to 
be gradually effected in youth, in which respect for the 
judgment of elders is to be preserved while a certain 
independence is to be won. Youthful irreverence and 
mature dependence are to be avoided. It is much easier 
to give this suggestion than it is to heed it, and however 
successfully the example of independence and reverence 
is illustrated or portrayed, we may at times expect youth- 
ful energies to break bounds and rush over holy ground. 

When all is said and done, let us remember finally J/^^^^re^" 
that the matter of getting a good judgment is nature's and Time, 
doing in the beginning and time's doing in the end. 
If it is in us to start with, a rich and concentrated 
experience will bring it out. Especially will long asso- 
ciation with one's chosen work develop within him a 
certain power of judging in those matters. Thus our 
great engineers are made. The man neglected by 
nature can never acquire a power of judging worth 
while; the average man will certainly acquire by 
experience a good judgment in his own business; the 
man gifted by nature will be able to build up a power 
of judging based even on the experience of others. 
It is our business to help our pupils realize whatsoever 
capacity of judging nature has bestowed upon them. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Characteristics of Judgment. 

2. The Logical Classification of Judgments. 

3. Distinctions between Judgment, Understanding, Belief, and 

Doubt. 

4. Brentano's Theory of Judgment. 



176 The Psychological Principles of Education 



References on Judgment 

Angell, Psychology, pp. 225-234. 

Compayrd, Psychology applied to Education, ch. VI. 

Creighton, Introductory Logic, ch. XXI. 

Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, ch. XI. 

Everett, Science of Thought, pp. 93-105. 

Knowlson, The Art of Thinking, ch. IV. 

Royce, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 255-257. 

Schaeffer, Thinking and Learning to Think, chs. I and VIII. 

Sully, The Teacher's Handbook of Psychology, pp. 363-375. 

Tompkins, Philosophy of Teaching, 183-203. 

Walton, Logical Bases of Education, ch. V. 



CHAPTER XIV 

TEACHING TO REASON 

As in many of our discussions heretofore and to 
follow, it is necessary here also to omit purely theo- 
retical inquiries and to select for consideration only 
those matters that will lead to practical conclusions. 
Passing by, then, such matters as the nature and kinds 
of reasoning, let us consider certain contrasts that exist 
between inductive and deductive reasoning, the bearing 
of these two kinds of reasoning on teaching, and, finally, 
certain suggestions in teaching the mind to reason. 

Let us begin by contrasting induction and deduction, induction 
First, in induction the mind first observes particular Deduction 
and typical instances and then reaches an inference, ^o^t^^asted. 
as when the chemist, having observed that some metals 
are elements, concludes that all metals are elements, The instance 

vs. the 

or when the plain man, having seen many black crows. Principle as 
concludes that all crows are black. Its principle is ^ Beginning. 
that what is true of some members of a class is true 
of all members of that class. Of course in the appH- 
cation of this principle induction often makes mistakes, 
to be corrected by later observation. In deduction, on 
the other hand, the mind first draws a particular con- 
clusion from some general principle with which it 
starts, and then observes whether its conclusion is true, 
or ought so to do, as when we conclude that copper is 
N 177 



178 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Formulation 



Exp li canon. 



Part 

vs. 
VvTioie as a 
Beginning. 



Probability 

vs. 
Certainty. 



an element because it is a metal and all metals are 
elements, or when the plain man expects that the 
crow he hears but does not see -^ill be black when he 
catches sight of him because all crows are black. In 
induction, first obsen-e, then conclude; in deduction, 
first conclude, then obsenx. 

Second, induction leads to the formulation of prin- 
ciples, as when Socrates by induction reached the con- 
clusion that knowledge is \irtue, that if a man knew 
what was best for him, he would do it. Deduction, on 
the other hand, leads to the explication of principles, 
as when Socrates concludes further and in harmony 
with his first principle that no man is volimtarily wicked, 
but that the wicked are ignorant. Thus induction 
defines; deduction illustrates. 

Third, induction moves from part to whole of a 
system or class or group, as when the scientist from 
his obsen^ations of many mammals tells us that all 
mammals are vertebrates. Deduction moves from the 
vrhole of a system, class, or group to a part of the same, 
as when, from the pre^us instance, we conclude that 
the whale is a vertebrate, knoT^ing it is a mammal. 
Induction is from the indi\ddual to the general; de- 
duction is from the general to the individual. 

Fourth, induction, havdng a number of particular 
obsen^ations as its premises, leaps beyond them in its 
general conclusion, as in the statement, *'•' Ever}^ human 
heart is human." For this reason induction can never 
give us more than a high degree of probabiUty in its 
conclusion. Deduction, on the other hand, stays 
within its premises, as when under the foregoing princi- 



Teaching to Reason 179 

pie one concludes that the criminal has a human heart. 
Thus deduction, if its premises are true, attains cer- 
tainty in its conclusion. This is a very large ''if," 
however, as very few general principles are above 
question in their universal application. In induction 
the conclusion is larger, in deduction smaller, than in 
the premises. 

Fifth, induction throuojh its observation of and ex- Discovery 

vs. 

periment upon new instances is the method whereby proof. 
knowledge is advanced. Modern science in its advance- 
ment of human learning dates, for example, from the 
"Novum Organum" (Induction) of Francis Bacon. 
Deduction, on the other hand, uses the knowledge that 
has been attained in concluding concerning particular 
instances; it arranges and systematizes all things 
according to genera, species, and individuals. Ancient 
science, for example, ended with Aristotle's "Organon" 
(Deduction); and the Middle Ages, under Aristotle's 
influence, made no observations, but classified all 
things. Induction is the logic of discovery; deduction 
is the logic of proof. In fairness to deduction at this 
point it must be observed that, after induction has 
begun to observe, progress in discovery is most rapid 
when deduction supplements induction at every point, 
anticipating a conclusion which observation is to test. 

Sixth, after the preceding contrasts it will not now The End of 

T . . , . , . -IT -I Induction is 

be surpnsmg to say that mduction provides the general the Be- 
principles with which deduction starts. At this point ^"^1^"^°^ 
we begin to feel the mutual dependence of induction 
and deduction, and the unity of the reasoning process. 
If Aristotle had not been such a wide observer and had 



i8o The Psychological Principles of Education 



Formation 

vs. 
Application 
of Habits. 



not thus provided his successors with so many general 
principles, the Middle Age period of deduction would 
have been shorter. Induction is the beginning of 
the process of knowledge which deduction concludes. 
Dogmatic minds, trusting to the perfection of the 
deductive syllogism, tend to forget that their major 
premises are all inductive conclusions and are thus 
tinged with the element of probability. We still live, 
even in rational matters, by faith, not sight. 

Seventh, and finally, inductions are our mental 
habits in process of formation; deductions are our 
mental habits in process of application. Our mental 
experience is a unitary process in which we are con- 
stantly both building up new general principles for 
ourselves and applying those already built up. The 
new element coming into experience modifies the old; 
the old element already in experience modifies the new. 
Induction is the influence of the new on the old; de- 
duction is the influence of the old on the new. Thus 
we reach the conclusion that though there are many 
and striking contrasts between induction and deduc- 
tion, at bottom our reasoning process is a unity. If 
we had time to investigate this reasoning process itself, 
we should probably discover that it is the highest and 
most complex means at the disposition of the intellect 
of man to adjust him to his environment, and that its 
essential nature consists in perceiving the relationship 
between two things by means of some third thing. To 
tell a crying child to "hush up" is not to reason, but, 
knowing the inability of his attention to cover many 
things at once, to engross his attention with something 



Teaching to Reason i8i 

else than his trouble that he may stop crying is to 
reason. 

Turning to the bearing of induction and deduction The Bearing 

of Induction 

on teaching, several things are to be noted. In the and De- 
first place, the inductive method of teaching begins Auction on 
v^ith the individual and the concrete and moves toward 
the general and the abstract : the deductive method of 
teaching begins with the general and the abstract and 
moves toward the individual and the concrete. In 
short, induction first illustrates and then states the illustrations 
principle; deduction first states the principle and then Principles, 
illustrates. This very paragraph, for instance, is pro- 
ceeding in deductive fashion. Most text-books do the 
same way. Perhaps it is not necessary to add that, 
with a few illustrious exceptions, like Socrates and 
Pestalozzi, the deductive method of teaching is the old 
way, that the inductive method of teaching, so far as 
present at all, is the new way. The old way does not 
need to be illustrated. The new way would be illus- 
trated in teaching English by beginning with language, 
not grammar; in Latin, by beginning with Caesar 
instead of a grammar; in mathematics, by beginning 
with examples instead of rules ; in science, by beginning 
with specimens instead of classes ; in history, by begin- 
ning with sources instead of compendiums. We are 
not yet estimating these two methods, but only de- 
scribing their bearing on teaching. 

Second, induction utilizes the acquisitive powers of Acquisition 
the mind, like observation and explanation ; deduction Reproduc- 
utilizes the reproductive powers of the mind, like memory ^^°^- 



1 82 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Learning 

vs. 
Teaching 
in the Race. 



Indepen- 
dence 
vs. 
Authority. 



The Division 
of Honors. 



and application. Induction leads the pupil to inform 
himself; deduction informs him. The pupil who in- 
forms himself under the guidance of the teacher ap- 
preciates and comprehends principles better than when 
he is informed by the teacher ; on the other hand, the 
pupil who is informed by the teacher has a larger and 
more rounded attainment. 

Third, induction is the way the race has learned, 
and so when used by the teacher requires both time 
and patience. Deduction is the way the race has 
usually taught its children, thus very quickly putting 
them abreast of the learning of their ancestors. 

Fourth, induction cultivates the sense of mental 
independence; this is evident in the radical and pro- 
gressive temperament that characterizes scientists as a 
body. Deduction cultivates the sense of authority, and 
mental dependence upon it; this is evident in the 
conservative temperament that characterizes religious 
institutions. 

It is very evident from these considerations that the 
honors have to be divided between the inductive and 
deductive methods, and that, in conformity with the 
suggestion about the unity of reasoning, our present 
problem is not to exclude one method or the other, but 
to adjust them properly. This conclusion is confirmed 
by the further observation that whether we are reason- 
ing in acquisition or in application, the same mental 
powers are necessary for efficiency, viz. the presence 
in consciousness of a considerable amount of usable 
knowledge, the power to analyze the situation con- 
fronting consciousness into its elements, and a certain 



Teaching to Reason 183 

wisdom in selecting that element which will lead to a 
conclusion; "learning," analysis, and "sagacity" make 
good reasoners. 

Having now seen the contrasts between reasoning 
inductively and deductively, and the bearing of the 
inductive and deductive methods on teaching, we are 
ready to attempt to adjust the claims of each method, 
and to make certain practical suggestions to teachers in 
cultivating the rationahty of pupils. 

The best method of teaching is neither the inductive Practical 
nor the deductive, but a wise combination of both. for^Teachers. 
Indeed, it is an unpractical abstraction to think of 
using either to the exclusion of the other. As Hegel Use Both, 
combined the deduction of Aristotle and the induction 
of Bacon in his unitary science of logic, as the modern 
psychologist finds reasoning one of the unitary functions 
of the mind, so must the teacher lead his pupils both to 
induce and to deduce. Our teaching cannot all be 
inductive, — it would take too long. Induction is the 
slow process by which knowledge in the race is accumu- 
lated ; the school cannot take the time to rediscover all 
this knowledge. But sufficient examples should always 
be given, and this is the point about inductive teach- 
ing, both to induce the principles and to make them 
clear. Neither can our teaching all be deductive, which 
would lead to formality and barrenness, as in the 
memoriter processes of Jesuit schools. We must afiirm 
with Spencer, "Children should be told as little as 
possible, and induced to discover as much as possible." 
But sufficient knowledge should be attained, and this 



184 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Suit the 
Method to 
the Subject. 



Induce 
principles. 



is the point about deductive teaching, to put the pupil 
during the school career into adjustment with the 
intellectual acquisitions of his race. The great busi- 
ness of the universities is to advance knowledge; the 
schools must content themselves with the wide task of 
disseminating it among the people. In short, use the 
inductive method in schools enough to make knowledge 
vital and objective, the deductive method enough to 
make knowledge systematic and comprehensive. 

In general it is true that all subjects in the curriculum 
admit of being taught both ways; also each subject 
should be taught to some extent in each way. Still, it 
is true that certain groups of studies lend themselves 
naturally to one method, and other groups to the other 
method. The physical and natural sciences, for ex- 
ample, like physics, chemistry, biology, botany, etc., 
absolutely demand that main emphasis be laid upon 
the inductive method. In this group of studies to 
observe, to experiment, to explain, to see and handle 
things face to face, to put questions to nature, are all- 
important. The mathematical sciences, on the other 
hand, continually making new applications of old 
axioms and theorems, easily emphasize the deductive 
method. The thing to be watched here is that the 
deductive proof of a theorem is understood and not 
memorized. Other groups of studies, hke literature 
and history, seem to have no inherent tendency toward 
either method; they have usually been taught de- 
ductively; they need to be taught inductively more. 

Regardless of the specific subject taught, it is im- 
portant m3^x the conclusion of each recitation to have 



Teaching to Reason 185 

the class sum up in the form of an induced principle 
the many individual points of the lesson covered. 
Induce the underlying truth of every lesson ; end by 
generalizing the new material that has been presented 
point by point. Here induction appears, and without 
it the significance of the details does not appear and the 
mind is left in confusion. In addition to clarification, 
induction is a mental economy, as it is able to say 
many things at once. 

Along with this principle goes the other one, the Make 

. . . - 1111 1 1-1 Applications. 

conclusion just mduced should at once be applied to 
new cases, — to new examples in mathematics, to new 
sentences in grammar, to present events in history, etc. 
The generalization which the new material affords must 
itself be applied. The habit of giving out problems is a 
fruitful one in any subject ; it means the application of 
knowledge to new cases. First observe, then induce, 
then deduce, then observe ; this is the big circle both in 
reasoning and in teaching. 

It is surprising how early the embryonic powers of Dealing with 
reason begin to show themselves in children. The Reasoner. 
''why" of things interests them long before they are able 
to understand, often to the exasperation of parents and 
teachers. It becomes a real question how to deal with 
the earlier signs of a developing reason. Children often 
want to know what they cannot understand. What are 
we to do? Several things. Show no impatience with 
the instinct of curiosity, it is at the bottom of all knowl- 
edge. Crowd on the knowledge in reply to the instinct 
as rapidly as it can be made intelligible. When the 
limit pf intelligibility is reached, ^s in the question. 



1 86 The Psychological Principles of Education 

"Who made God?" it does not satisfy the child to 
be told to wait, nor does it satisfy him to put him off 
with a foolish answer, such as, "I don't know — I guess 
He must have made Himself," which only stimulates the 
child's mind to further questioning as to which part of 
Himself He made first. Rather, on the verge of in- 
telligibility, give your best answer to the child, "He is 
eternal and unmade;" the interesting thing is that, 
though unintelligible to the child, it is emotionally 
satisfying, the eyes open wide in wonder, and the 
mind turns to something else. A child three years old 
will feel a reason it cannot understand. 

Answer then the child's inquiries sympathetically and 
as intelligibly as you can. Go even farther and ask 
him some questions in reply, setting easy lines of in- 
quiry before him. Once we are alive to our surround- 
ings, it is surprising how many questions nature is 
continually suggesting to us, that we may suggest to 
children ready for them. Why does the sun harden 
clay and soften wax? Why does cold freeze water? 
Why is ice lighter than water. Every detail of our 
environment is significant with rationality. It permits 
us to stimulate, as well as to satisfy, the child's in- 
stinct for truth. The curiosity that we quell at seven 
we shall miss and want at fourteen. 

The satisfaction and stimulation of the instinct of 
curiosity in children must not be confused with the 
child's desire to evade an authoritative coramand by 
parleying concerning the reason. Here it is enough 
that the parent or teacher has spoken. To discuss the 
rationality of obedience is not within the province of 



Teaching to Reason 187 

children. At this point the word of George Eliot is 
permanent, ''Reason about everything with your child, 
you make him a monster, without reverence, without 
affections." 

As a last suggestion to teachers in connection with study Logic, 
reasoning, I should like to refer to the advantages 
coming to themselves from a careful study of inductive 
and deductive logic.^ Among many good things to 
result from such a study may be mentioned an ac- 
quaintanceship with the reasoning powers of con- 
sciousness, an emphasis upon the necessity of clear 
thinking to oneself and before others, a sense of the 
unity of all truth and the desire so to present it, and 
also a working familiarity with the commonest fallacies 
that beset the reasoning of pupils, teachers, and all 
mankind alike. Our logical processes are still so 
slightly developed that frequently we are in intellectual 
error unawares, frequently too we are unable to extricate 
ourselves on discovering our illogical position, and, 
worst of all, such intellectual confusions disturb our 
sense of equanimity no whit. We ought to repent of 
bad thinking, and of loving ugly art, second only to 
selfish conduct, and, having repented, to gird ourselves, 
through logical studies, for walking in the strait and 
narrow way of correct thinking. 

With the conclusion of reasoning we are brought to Summary of 
the end of our discussion of intellectual education. A Education. 
brief survey of the field covered shows us the mind at 
work intellectually, getting sensations, interpreting 

^ For example, Welton, "The Logical Bases of Education." 



1 88 The Psychological Principles of Education 

them as perceptions of individual objects, reacting 
upon the world apperceptively in terms of acquired 
experience, remembering the past, imagining both 
actual and ideal forms, conceiving truth in generalized 
notions, judging concerning reality, and reasoning from 
part to whole and from whole to part. This intellectual 
machine of man is wonderful in itself, — as we realize 
it part and whole, most wonderful. But it is given us, 
not to admire, but to use. The motor-power that runs 
it is the feelings, and the purpose for which it runs, a 
purpose inherent in its own nature and in which our 
wills concur, is to attain a knowledge of the truth. 
This knowledge of the truth is an increasing intellectual 
adjustment to physical and mental realities, in the 
light of which our choices for the conduct of life may 
be wisely made. I have used the figure of a machine 
to cover the workings of the intellect of man; the 
figure of a live organism would have been more apt, an 
organism that develops successively its ever higher 
powers. The delicate work of the teacher, requiring 
knowledge, sympathy, and devotion, is to stimulate 
the growth of this organism into its fullest reahzation. 
In summary at this point we may say, intellectual 
education is the development of mental capacity 
through mental action; it is the liberation of the 
human powers through the knowledge-getting activi- 
ties. 
Illustration. As an illustration of the kind of intellectual educa- 
tion here suggested, I will append the following quota- 
tion from an address, unpublished as far as I know, by 
Rev. S^mud A. Eliot ; -- 



Teaching to Reason 189 

"What then, in a word, did Harvard do for Emerson? 
To the ancestral faith incarnate in his blood, to the 
shrewd Yankee common sense he inherited, to the 
New England conscience which was his birthright, to 
the training of a godly and simple home, it added the 
education which does not consist in conning text-books, 
but in a widening of horizon, an enlarging of experience, 
a deepening of purpose. Harvard taught him not only- 
facts, but what facts stand for and represent and pre- 
dict. There he found the way in which to turn sight 
into insight. He discovered how to understand and 
master circumstances by knowledge and obedience. 
His education was no formal process. Its distinctive 
quality may be said to have been, not range of knowl- 
edge, but vitality of knowledge, not scope, but depth, not 
possession of information, but enlargement of view.'* 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Nature of Reasoning. 

2. Do Animals Reason? 

3. Is Sense-perception Unconscious Inference? 

4. Radicalism, Conservatism, and Reasoning. 

References on Reasoning 

Baldwin, Senses and Intellect, ch. XV. 

Compayr^, Psychology Applied, etc., ch. VII. 

Cramer, Talks to Students, chs. XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX. 

Creighton, Introductory Logic, ch. XXIV. 

Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, ch. XII. 

Fitch, Educational Aims and Methods, Lect. IV. 

James, Principles of Psychology, Vol. II, ch. XXII. 

James, Briefer Psychology, ch. XXII. 

Ladd, Primer of Psychology, ch. X. 

Laiidon, Principles ari4 Practice of Teaching, etc, pp. 320-329. 



190 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Landon, School Management, pp. 98-108. 

Laurie, Institutes of Education, Part II, Lect. VIII. 

Royce, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 293-296. 

Schaeffer, Thinking and Learning to Think, ch. XVI. 

Sully, Teachers' Handbook, etc., pp. 375-406. 

Welton, Logical Bases of Education, chs. V, VI, and IX. 



PART III 

EMOTIONAL EDUCATION, OR EDUCATING 
THE MIND TO FEEL 



INTRODUCTION 

In passing through feehng on our way from intellect ^^^ ^""^^^ 
to will, our order is historical and conventional. If Discussion. 
the order of our discussion took its cue from the bio- 
logical development of body and mind, perhaps the 
feelings would have come first, the will next, and then 
the intellect. But since consciousness after all is a 
unity in its functioning, the question of the order of 
discussion of its abstracted phases is not paramount, 
and there are some advantages in following traditional 
usage. In the famous list of epithets describing edu- 
cation, viz. physical, intellectual, and moral, I simply 
want to succeed in inserting emotional between "in- 
tellectual" and "moral," and adding religious to the 
group in the interest of a worthy completeness. 

It is the aim of emotional education in general to '^^^ General 

° Aim of 

develop the mind's capacity to feel; especially to Emotional 
cultivate a certain sensitiveness to the best things in ^'^"'^^^^o'^- 
life. The supreme ideal to which feeling can attach 
itself is beauty. On the way to beauty many are the 
objects about which feelings cling, and for the final 
development of an aesthetic taste, many are the stages 
of difiFerentiation in the life of feeling. It is the busi- 
ness of emotional education to follow helpfully all the 
differentiations of the life of feeling as they attach 
themselves to various objects until the goal is reached 
in appreciation of the beautiful, 
o 193 



194 The Psychological Principles of Education 

stages in the The psychologists are puzzled when it comes to 
Emotional classifying the feelings; they are almost as badly off 
Education, when it is a question of showing their genetic develop- 
ment. Indeed, the very definition of feeling is some- 
thing of a quarrel, and there is also no agreement as to 
whether consciousness should be regarded as twofold, 
lumping feeling and will, or threefold. Where such 
confusion reigns, I have tried to make a natural and 
genetic mode of attack upon this most attractive field, 
beginning with an attempt to describe feelings; then 
indicating the available educational ways of dealing 
with them in general; then in particular considering 
the elementary feelings of the pleasant and the un- 
pleasant ; then the complex feelings, both of the coarser 
and subtler types, using as instances of the latter the 
altruistic and the aesthetic. With this guiding thread 
I trust no reader will get lost in what at best is some- 
what uncertain territory. 



CHAPTER XV 

DESCRIPTION OF THE FEELINGS 

It is perhaps true that the feeHngs represent the The Primacy 
deepest strata in human hfe. They seem to be biologi- 
cally the primordial element in conscious life. In 
lower animals, in primitive man, and in children, the 
emotional elements seem to dominate over the intel- 
lectual and volitional. The nerve-centres that cor- 
respond to the feelings develop earlier than those that 
correspond to rational thought and deliberate action, 
and man as an emotional being differs less from chil- 
dren and animals than as an intellectual or moral 
being. It is not that sensations and reflexes are absent 
in primitive forms of life, for they are not ; but they 
seem slower in passing on to the higher types of thought 
and action than do likes and dislikes in passing on to 
complex emotions. This primacy of feeling refers here 
to their early development in the race, not necessarily 
to their prepotent influence in mature, civilized life. 
The practical bearing of this primordial character of 
feeling on educating indicates the necessity of including 
the feelings both as means and as material in dealing with 
young life. They are both to be developed themselves 
aright, and utilized in securing study and worthy conduct. 

~^ The importance of feeling in life, both young and 

195 



196 The Psychological Principles of Education 



The Impor- 
tance of 
Feeling. 
An Essential 
Element of 
Conscious- 
ness. 



Values. 



Art and 
Religion. 



old, will appear from a series of considerations. First, 
feeling is an essential element of consciousness ; that is, 
without feeling, no consciousness. The element of 
feeling may be uppermost at any given time, or it may 
be secondary to the influence of ideas or choices, but 
in any case it is never totally lacking. Though there 
is a theory that the original consciousness was just a 
feeling, perhaps of comfort or more likely of dis- 
comfort, and the paragraph above would lend weight 
to this view, still it is probably true that no state of 
consciousness to-day is just feeling and nothing else; 
not even the discomfort of the dentist's chair is divorced 
from all sensation and images and will. To call feeling 
an element of consciousness means it is always present 
but never alone. 

Second, the feelings give values to life. The sense of 
value, of importance, of worth, is a feeling; the sense 
of fact or truth is intellectual. What is worth while 
to a man depends on the attitude of his feelings toward 
the things in question. Life itself is and is not worth 
living to different individuals. As Professor Royce 
has expressed it, " If we look for a simpler criterion of 
what we mean by feeling, it seems worth while to point 
out that hy feeling, we mean simply our present sensi- 
tiveness to the values of things in so far as these values 
are directly present to consciousness." ^ 

Third, it is a defensible position that the feelings are 
the main, though not the only, agency in producing art 
and religion. Thought is there to direct, will is there 
to execute, but feeling is there as the inspiring dynamic. 

* Royce, "Outlines of Psychology," p. 167 (italics his). 



Description of the Feelings 197 

Art is the product of man's feehng for the perfect, is 
the union of his ideal and the real, — the ideal that 
would satisfy his feelings is approximately embodied 
in some real, tangible, or sensuous form. Poetry, as 
illustrating the arts, Poe somewhere defines as " the 
rhythmical creation of beauty." And in the case of 
religion, the great Prussian theologian Schleiermacher 
has been followed by many ^ in his conclusion that 
the root of religion is in the feeling of man's depend- 
ence (Abhdngigkeitsgejuhl) . To this foundation others 
would add the aesthetic feeling as also elemental. Of 
course, the trunk and branches of religion are thought 
and action, though its roots be feeling. The intimacy 
of the relationship between art and religion as grounded 
in feeling appears in the consideration that when " the 
perfect " for which man longs is a Person, then art 
becomes religion. 

Fourth, many maintain that the feehngs are not only The Great 

1 • Til • • T<- 1 Influence 

the primordial element m conscious life but also that of Feeling. 
they are the most influential, transcending in promi- 
nence both rational thought and deliberate action. The 
example and writings of Rousseau and George Eliot 
and the romantic movement in literature might be 
cited as illustrating the dominating place of feeling in 
life; also the opinion of such an intellectual type of 
man as President Eliot, who writes: "The world is 
still governed by sentiments, and not by observation, 
acquisition, and reasoning ; and national greatness and 
righteousness depend more on the cultivation of right 

^ Cf., for example, Everett, "Psychological Elements of Religious 
Faith." 



198 The Psychological Principles of Education 

sentiments in children than on anything else." ^ With- 
out committing ourselves fully to the argument that 
the feehngs are more influential than reason or will, 
it would be correct to say that without feeling we 
neither learn nor achieve; interest leads us to pursue 
truth, and desire prompts us to action. 
In Future. ^j^^j fifth, the future history of feeling will be greater 

doubtless than its past. Only late in the history of 
thinking and education have the feelings had justice 
done them. Plato made the feelings subordinate in 
dignity to the reason, as the soldiers in his ideal Re- 
public were subordinate to the philosophers. Aristotle 
said consciousness was composed of intellect and will, 
and his division still holds good to-day for such men as 
Herbart, with all his sweep of educational influence, 
Schopenhauer, Fechner, and Paulsen. The feelings 
first received independent recognition by Tetens in the 
eighteenth century, whose threefold classification of 
consciousness into knowing, feeling, and willing was 
made popular by Immanuel Kant in his three great 
Critiques, who is followed at this point by most, though 
not all, of our contemporary psychologists. Educa- 
tionally, if we omit the attention to aesthetics among 
the Greeks, the feelings were practically omitted until 
interest and pleasure appeared in the schooling of 
Emile by the modern apostle of feeling. To-day Presi- 
dent Hall is telling us that as the education of the past 
has been that of the head, so the education of the 
twentieth century will be that of the heart. The in- 
creasing psychological and educational recognition of 

^ Eliot, "The School," Atlantic Monthly , November, 1903. 



Description of the Feelings 199 

feeling in historic times indicates the still larger role it 
has yet to play in life.^ The revival of learning needs 
to be supplemented by the recognition of feeling, and 
the over-intellectualization of the curriculum needs re- 
adjusting to its subnormal emotionalism. 

When we pass from the importance of feeling to its The Nature 
nature, our task is more difficult. Wundt says the 
chapter on feeling is one of the darkest in the history 
of psychology. But it is necessary to do what we can 
to understand feeling before attempting to regard it 
educationally. 

We usually think when we can define a thing we indefinable, 
understand it. But our ability to understand feeling 
does not depend on our abihty to define it. In fact, 
an adequate definition of feeling is impossible; a 
feeling is an experience to which words cannot do full 
justice. He who has been anxious, or joyous, or sur- 
prised, knows these feelings; he who has never been 
so cannot be told what it is to be so. 

However, a working, though inadequate, definition a Working 
of feeling is possible. Thus we may say, feeling is 
the attitude of consciousness toward thought or action. 
The thought that Pamour propre is the prime motive 
of man, as Larochefoucauld said, or that our choices 
are predetermined from the foundation of the world, 
as Jonathan Edwards held, may excite within us feelings 
of antagonism; or, the act of a Guiteau or Czolgocz 
may arouse within us feelings of indignation. Some 

^ Cf. the conclusions of Stanley, "Evolutionary Psychology of 
Feeling." 



200 The Psychological Principles of Education 



In Individ- 
uality. 



Variability. 



thoughts and acts please, attract, delight, satisfy us; 
others displease, repel, sadden, or discomfort us; or 
the totality of the person as manifested through his 
thoughts and acts may excite within us affection or 
disgust. A more technical, though negative, definition 
of feeling is, "consciousness as experiencing modifica- 
tions abstracted from (i) the determination of objects 
and (2) the determination of action." ^ 

We approach closest to the nature of feeling perhaps 
when we observe the inmost place it occupies in our 
individuality, closer to us even than our very thoughts 
or deeds ; for our thoughts may be communicated, our 
deeds seen, but nobody can ever know exactly how we 
feel. Here we are in our individuality, inaccessible to 
dearest friend and foe alike. They may imagine our 
feeling, they may have similar feelings; they do not 
feel our feeling. Baldwin somewhere writes, "You 
can know what I know and you can will what I will, 
but you cannot by any possibility feel what I feel; 
this is subjectivity, this peculiar and unapproachable 
isolation of one consciousness from another." A 
man's feeling is his soul's barometer, telling his condi- 
tion more nearly than either his thought or his deed. 
The feeling of anger is murderous, the feeling of kind- 
ness is saving. 

If feeling be the attitude of consciousness toward 
ideas and acts, it will not surprise us to observe that it 
is further the nature of feeling to change its character 
through the influence of new ideas and new acts. You 

^ Baldwin's "Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology," article 
"Feeling." 



Description of the Feelings 201 

have a feeling of antipathy for a certain person. Sup- 
pose you incidentally learn he has shown his good will 
by rendering you a favor. Your feeling of antagonism 
begins to weaken. Or, you have a feeling of indiffer- 
ence toward a certain philanthropic cause. You are 
induced either to inquire into it or to render it some 
support. Perhaps a genuine interest supplants the 
original indifference. This characteristic of feeling is 
evidently the handle educators are to seize, — to get 
hold of feelings, supply new ideas, and secure some 
responsive action. 
And, contrary to general impression, it is the nature slowness of 

Change. 

of feehng to move more slowly than either ideas or 
choices. Ideas must change, or actions, or both, 
before feeling changes. Often it takes many new 
ideas to dislodge a feeling of prejudice against a member 
of another race or a person in another social position. 
A feeling of conviction on a question at issue once 
reached, many and unanswerable arguments on the 
other side may not suffice to change it, — we are "of 
the same opinion still." Or, after long deliberation, a 
man makes a momentous choice, involving the future 
of self and friends. About this choice, hke vines about 
a tree, the feehngs of his after hfe grow up, sometimes 
sapping its strength, always finding their support in it. 
All of which goes to show feelings are deep down in 
our natures, clinging to old ideas and habits, slow to 
move, and, being moved, ready to root themselves again 
into the very fibres of our being. 

The description of the feelings would be essentially 



202 The Psychological Principles of Education 

The Kinds of incomplete without an attempt at the analysis and 
classification of feeling. To describe in psychology is 
always to analyze. When we begin to analyze and 
classify the feehngs, we find here a vast complex wealth 
of emotional material, not subject as yet to the definite 
groupings possible in the region of the intellect, where 
the best psychologists are in disagreem^ent, and where, 
consequently, all divisions are somewhat arbitrary. 
However, divide we must, to conquer this comphcated 
realm. 

Elementary xhc Simplest distinction to draw is that between 

and Com- i r i- n-ii i 

piex. elementary and complex leelmgs. The elementary 

feelings are those that we get through the analysis of 

The Eiemen- feeling iuto its lowcst Constituents, iust as we get sodium 

tary Feehngs. ° . j J o 

and chlorine as the elements of common salt. Now, 
the one thing on which all the psychologists agree is 
that the sense of the pleasant and unpleasant are ele- 
mentary feelings, simple, ultimate, not capable of 
further analysis. The best we can do here is to use 
synonyms and say the pleasant is that which has a 
certain sense of attractiveness for consciousness, and 
the unpleasant is that which has a certain sense of 
repulsion for consciousness. We are not defining, but 
illustrating the impossibility of definition. The pleasant 
and unpleasant are ultimate feeling-tones of conscious- 
ness. The sense of the unpleasant, the disagreeable, 
the discomforting, the repellent, which is a feeling, 
must not be confused with physical pain, which is a 
sensation. A feeling originates in the attitudes of 
consciousness; a sensation originates in a stimulus 
.affecting some sense-organ. It is thus incorrect to 



Description of the Feelings 203 

refer to pleasure and pain as the two elementary feel- 
ings; the elementary feelings are at least the pleasant 
and unpleasant affective tone of consciousness. It is 
correct, however, to observe that the sensation of pain 
normally arouses the elementary feeling of displeasure 
or the unpleasant. Into the additions to these ele- 
mentary feelings made by Wundt and Royce we need 
not go as beside our practical purpose, but the in- 
terested reader is referred to the literature of the 
subject.^ 
The complex feelings are the emotions, that is, they The 

CI' 1. 1 • 1 • -1 • Complex 

are feelings complicated with sensations, ideas, images. Feelings, 
and tendencies to action. They are the elementary 
feelings shot through with the influences of thoughts 
and deeds. The physical organism furnishes those 
sensational reports so constitutive of the character of 
an emotion. Indeed, we may serviceably divide the 
emotions according to the extent to which the bodily 
expression of the emotion is a conspicuous part of it. 
The coarser emotions, like fear, anger, hate, loy, srrief, ^he Coarser 

1 . 1 . 1 f 1 -1 . 1 and Finer 

jealousy, love, are those m which the physiological ex- Emotions. 
pressions are prominent; the finer emotions, like self- 
respect, sympathy, wonder, and the aesthetic, moral, 
and religious sentiments, are those in which the physi- 
ological expression is an almost, but not quite, 
negligible quantity. 

Thus, in sum, we have analyzed the feelings, first, Summary of 

, , 1 1 1-1 Kinds of 

into the elementary and complex ; and again, the com- Feeling. 
plex feelings themselves into the coarser and finer 

^Wundt,"Outlinesof Psychology," pp. 74-90; Royce, " Outlines of 
Psychology," pp. 176-19; cf.also Angell, "Psychology," pp. 258-259. 



204 The Psychological Principles of Education 

emotions. This picture of the kinds of feelings, from 
simplest pleasure to highest sentiment, will serve us 
practically when we come presently to consider the 
educator's way of deahng with each type of feeling. 



The Growth 
of Feeling. 



Stages of 
Growth. 



The Egoistic 
Feelings. 



In the description of the feelings but one point re- 
mains to be considered before we are ready to treat 
them pedagogically. We should like to know the order 
in which the feelings naturally develop from childhood, 
through youth, up to maturity. This is the genetic 
account of feeling, a point of view introduced into 
psychology largely through the influence of the bio- 
logical sciences, and wonderfully helpful to the teacher 
who would fall in with nature's ways of working. 

The stages in the development of feehng differ from 
each other according to the object, whether idea, act, 
or person, to which the feelings attach themselves. In 
childhood, the feelings centre about the self; in early 
adolescence, about other selves ; in late adolescence and 
maturity, about certain ideals. Thus as the individual 
develops we have in succession the egoistic feelings, the 
altruistic feelings, and the ideal feelings. 

The egoistic feelings are those that attach to the 
self as object. Examples would be the love of self, of 
pleasure, and possession, pride and vanity, fear, anger, 
joy, and grief. The child is not a conscious egotist, he 
is an instinctive egoist. The instinct of self-preserva- 
tion which lies so deeply in the past of the race and in 
its present nervous system wells up spontaneously in 
the child's deeds. He is not to be censured, but to be 
understood. His apparent selfishness, crying aloud in 



Description of the Feelings 205 

need and crowing with satisfaction, is nature's way of 
calling the attention of his elders to him. The great 
pedagogic thing to do here is to secure transition to the 
second stage and so prevent what is really selfness be- 
coming selfishness. This problem we must attack in 
a later chapter (ch. XIX). Here it is only to be noted 
that it is life in society that permits egoism to be sub- 
limated in altruism. 

The altruistic feelings are those that attach to other The 
selves as their object. Examples would be love and Feelings, 
hate, friendship, respect, sympathy, emulation, patriot- 
ism, where the object is one's country, viewed as the 
nation's self. Since Aristotle pointed out that man is 
by nature a dweller in cities, the social disposition of 
man has been recognized, though only negatively in 
the social contract theories of the eighteenth and earlier 
centuries. The right utihzation of Ufe in society 
brings the egoism of the child into the altruism of the 
youth. The personality is widened to include other 
selves. Not so much that the self is forgotten, as that 
others are remembered. With the development of 
rational thought in adolescence, the youth becomes 
conscious of certain ideals toward which his feelings 
now reach out in aspiration. 

The ideal feehngs are those that attach to certain The ideal 
ideals as their objects. An ideal is an idea pursued 
as an object, it is that unattainable object whose pur- 
suit is in itself satisfying. The ideals of man, in view 
of his threefold nature in unity, are truth, beauty, 
goodness, and God : truth for his intellect, beauty for 
his feelings, goodness for his will, and God for himself 



2o6 The Psychological Principles of Education 

as a unit. Toward each of these ideals man in later 
youth and maturity develops certain feelings, the ideal 
feelings, sometimes called the sentiments. Their list 
includes the intellectual feeling, in its various forms of 
ignorance, wonder, curiosity, interest, surprise, and love 
of truth ; the aesthetic feeling, as related to the beautiful, 
the sublime, and the ridiculous; the ethical feeling, or 
the love of the ideal of goodness, which is inseparable 
in its development from the altruistic feelings ; and the 
religious feeling, the sense of dependence on, and trust 
in, divinity, a feeling also intimately connected with the 
altruistic feelings, for God is the Ideal Self and "the 
Great Companion." 
The These three stages in the development of feeling 

rfSrEa^dier ^taud to cach Other hke a series of concentric circles. 
Stages. each one larger than the last. In becoming altruistic, 

the youth carries his egoism along with him, but it is 
absorbed in the higher stage; so in coming under the 
influence of the ideals, he brings along with him both 
his egoism and his altruism, only they are felt and seen 
in their true perspective and real relationships. The 
later extension of personality absorbs the truth 
that was in the earlier immature stage of growth. 
It is the problem and the privilege of the teacher 
to see that the pupils are issued in nature's stately 
procession into wider and even wider regions of the 
Self. 

To assist him in so doing, so far as the life of feeling 
is concerned, we must now turn to those general 
principles which must serve as the beacon lights of his 
practice. 



Description of the Feelings 207 



Problems for Further Study 

1. The Ultimate Aspects of Consciousness. 

2. The Elementary Feelings. 

3. The Psychological Explanation of Feeling. 

4. The Decay of the Emotional Life. 

References on the Description of Feelings 

Baldwin, Feeling and Will, ch. V, and pp. 186-194. 

Calkins, Introduction to Psychology, chs. IX and XX. 

Dewey, Psychology, ch. XIV. 

Ladd, Outhnes of Physiological Psychology, pp. 381-391. 

Ribot, Psychology of the Emotions, ch. X. 

Royce, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 163-184. 

Spencer, Principles of Psychology, Vol. II, Part IX, ch. IX. 

Stanley, Evolutionary Psychology of Feeling, ch. XVII. 

Stout, Manual of Psychology, pp. 284-311. 

Titchener, A Primer of Psychology, ch. XII. 



CHAPTER XVI 



PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATING THE FEELINGS 



Having just described the complex wealth of feel- 
ings as a whole, we must now undertake to state those 
general principles which are to guide us in educating 
them. 

First and deepest of all is the principle that the feel- 
ings must be reached indirectly through ideas and 
action. There is no direct cultivation of a feeling; 
it cannot be approached immediately. Like the vine 
to its trellis, the feeling grows up about some strong 
idea lodged in consciousness, or some noble deed of 
conduct. Think the thought, good or bad, do the 
deed, right or wrong: and the feeling appropriate to 
it is aroused. Passions are generated through their 
exciting ideas ; emotions tread on the heels of signifi- 
cant deeds. Anthony enrages the Roman populace 
with his deftly suggested ideas; their own deeds of 
violence and rapine once begun, their fury is an infat- 
uation until exhausted upon its object. To secure a 
desirable, feeling, give the fitting idea and secure the 
associated act. 

To be specific, the young child with whom we start 
is selfish, thinking more of meum than tuum. As he 
grows, we desire that he shall have increasing regard 
for other worthy interests than his own, until indeed 

208 



Principles of Educating the Feelings 209 

he first shares, then shares aHke, then shares with 
many. How shall we assist him to outgrow his natural 
selfishness? Only by securing from him those definite 
deeds that mean regard for others, only by suggesting 
those ideas that mean the recognition of others. Home, 
friends, town, state, country, these are ever present 
objects to which we must secure specific deeds of ser- 
vice and concerning which we must instill attractive 
ideas. 

From the statement and illustration of this principle, The Unity of 
it is evident that there is no education of the feeUngs 
apart from the education of the intellect and the edu- 
cation of the will. It is through the ideas of the intel- 
lect and the acts of the will that the desirable states 
of feeling are secured. The consciousness that we 
educate is a unity ; the means that we use in educating 
are a unity; and the education that we secure is a 
unity. The high thinker and pure actor have fine 
feelings. 

In view of this educational unity, we recosrnize The Aim of 

, , , . r -.1 1 . r 1 r -,- • Emotional 

clearly the aim of all education of the feelings, viz. to Education, 
develop such feelings as will stimulate the intellect, 
motivate the will, and appreciate the beautiful; the 
great feeling that stimulates the intellect, lying at the 
basis of all scientific investigation, is the love of truth. 
The great feeling that motivates the will, keeping it 
steady and true in the midst of all trying and unworthy 
solicitations, is the honest love of right. The culti- 
vation of the feelings that can appreciate the beautiful, 
that can sense the perfect in nature and art, is the 
choicest task set the educator of the feelings. 



2IO The Psychological Principles of Education 



An Error to 
be avoided. 



Secure Right 
First Expres- 
sions of 
Feeling. 



The Danger 
of Emotion- 
alism. 



An error to be avoided is talking to our pupils about 
the feelings they ought to have, e.g. interest in their 
studies, instead of bringing those conditions about 
that will produce the desired feeling. From the very 
nature of a feeling, it cannot be gotten by describing 
it. In fact, since it is an ultimate constituent of con- 
sciousness, a feeling cannot really be described. Our 
pupils must be made to feel feelings, through true and 
vivid ideas and right action, and not hear inadequate 
descriptions of them. 

Whenever a feehng is once present, whether aroused 
instinctively or by the teacher's art, the natural thing 
is for it to express itself in some way through the motor 
channels of the nervous system. Here the great achieve- 
ment for the teacher is to effect right motor expressions, 
to couple the strong emotions particularly with ser- 
viceable outlets. To fail to do so is to let the emotion 
evaporate, and so to weaken it as a future dynamic; 
or else to let it run out in unworthy channels, and so 
tend to give a wrong set to the nervous system. It is 
especially desirable that great first emotional expe- 
riences coming upon children and youth should at once 
be drafted off into correct motor expressions. ''The 
laws of brain-habit determine the principle that when 
experiences are keen and novel, any reaction then 
accomplished determines the brain's whole future to 
a degree never later equalled by other actions of the 
same sort and number." * 

The teacher who is successful in stimulating and 
arousing the emotional life must beware of overdoing 

^ Royce, ''Outlines of Psychology," p. 345. 



Principles of Educating the Feelings 211 

it. Too much feeling disturbs clear thinking, judg- 
ment, and reasoning, and makes character unreHable. 
Proportion must be maintained between rationality, 
action, and emotion. It is not desirable to disengage 
a larger amount of emotion than will serve our pur- 
pose, viz. to keep the mind studiously occupied and 
the conduct constantly considerate. Waves of emo- 
tion that dethrone thought and overstimulate uncon- 
sidered action we need both to avoid in ourselves and 
to discourage in others. This caution is particu- 
larly necessary to heed in dealing with those pupils 
whose individual variations are in the direction of 
the strongly emotional type. With the anaemic type, 
the naturally weak emotional natures, those colorless 
characters without either love or hate in their consti- 
tutions, we may put no check on our effort to make 
life to these a more animating affair. 

What agencies does the curriculum afford us in edu- The Use 
eating the feelings through the instillation of moving curriculum, 
ideas? Our most effective instruments are art, litera- 
ture, and history, though indeed we must think of 
no study as devoid of emotional interest. History, 
particularly when taught to young adolescents, should 
develop feelings of admiration for heroes, of disap- 
proval of self-seekers, and of love of country. It 
would illuminate the problem of any teacher to secure 
from his pupils a hst of their ideal heroes. Why not 
do it ? Added force is given the feelings of admiration 
and disapproval just mentioned when they centre about 
conspicuous contemporary figures, rather than those 
of some remote past. Literature should develop a 



212 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Regard the 
Physical. 



The Conta- 
gion of 
Feeling. 



loving appreciation of noble thoughts and a sense 
for their fitting expression, — thoughts which, cher- 
ished in memory, shall guide us like stars in the dark- 
ness of night. And art in its many forms should first 
abash us, making us feel our ignorance and inca- 
pacity, and then Hft us into pure enjoyment of the 
beautiful and the perfect. 

In enumerating these general principles of educat- 
ing the feelings, the subtle and elusive feelings, it 
would be the mistake of an unpractical idealist to 
omit regard for the physical basis of the emotional 
life. We want brave, courageous, heroic, hopeful, 
optimistic, joyous pupils; we cannot have them on 
bad air, cold rooms, poor food, scanty clothing, and 
lost sleep. No study of pessimistic authors is ade- 
quate apart from their health conditions, and that 
soul is cast in a heavenly mould that, like Stevenson, 
can pray in physical languishment for "courage and 
gayety and the quiet mind." The element of truth 
in the working hypothesis of modern physiological 
psychology, that brain states condition mentaL states, 
demands that the sound body house the sound emotion. 

And finally, in these principles, rely upon the force 
of example and imitation. Show the feelings you 
desire to develop, but do not show them unless you 
feel them. "Assume a virtue if you have it not," as 
Hamlet said to the Queen, is no maxim for the teacher. 
No eyes so quick to detect your feigning as your pupils', 
and once detected, farewell to influence. But really 
to have and to show feeling upon significant occa- 
sions is a sure way to elicit emotional responses from 



Principles of Educating the Feelings 213 

pupils. Nothing is more contagious than a feeling. 
As quick as an electric shock, the schoolroom vibrates 
with meaningful changes in the teacher's mood. From 
grave to gay, from gloom to cheer, from righteous in- 
dignation to pleasurable enterprise, the teacher's feel- 
ing is the pupil's feeling. 
Let us not underestimate the permanence of our 'The Good of 

Sentiment. 

service and the quality of our opportunity in culti- 
vating a strong, inspiring emotional life in the youth 
of the land. As President Eliot has written, ''The 
world is still governed by sentiments, and not by ob- 
servation, acquisition, and reasoning; and national 
greatness and righteousness depend more on the cul- 
tivation of right sentiments in the children than on 
anything else. . . . Now, the sentiments which Amer- 
ican schools ought to cherish and inculate are family 
love, respect for law and public order, love of freedom, 
and reverence for truth and righteousness." ^ 

Problems for Further Study 

1. Romanticism in Literature. 

2. Emotionalism in Religion. 

3. Feeling in Art. 

References on Educating the Feelings 

Bain, Education as a Science, pp. 52-120. 

Compayre, Psychology applied to Education, ch. XII. 

Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, chs. XVIII 

and XIX. 
Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education, chs. XXII and 

XXXVIII. 
Holman, Education, pp. 56-63, 160-172, 193-197. 

* C. W. Eliot, "The School," Atlantic Monthly, November, 1903. 



214 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Landon, School Management, Part III. 

Morgan, Psychology for Teachers, pp. 145-149. 

James, Talks to Teachers, ch. XII. 

James, Principles of Psychology, ch. XXV. 

Johonnot, Principles and Practice of Teaching, ch. XII. 

Oppenheim, Mental Growth and Control, ch. X. 

Laughlin, The Moral Value of Art Education, Proc. N. E. A., 

1890, p. 141 and seq. 
Ribot, Psychology of the Emotions, ch. X. 
Santayana, The Sense of Beauty. 
Samson, Elements of Art Criticism, pp. 192-197. 
Schiller, ^Esthetic Letters. 

Stanley, Evolutionary Psychology of Feeling, ch. XVII. 
Sully, Teachers' Handbook of Psychology, ch. XVI, XVII, or 

XVIII. , 
Thomas, L'Education des Sentiments, chs. Ill and XVIIL 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE PLACE OF PLEASURE AND PAIN IN EDUCATION 

In the order of racial and individual development 
the elementary feelings of the pleasant and unpleasant 
precede the complex emotions; so in the order of 
our discussion of the specific kinds of feehng they must 
do the same. 

Pleasure is a feelinsr, capable of various desrrees of 'The Nature 

, , . . -of Pleasure. 

mtensity, and apparently an ultimate constituent oi 
consciousness without being subject to further analysis. 
As an elementary feeling it is the mental accompani- 
ment of normal activity of any sort and of steady, 
smooth, uninterrupted thinking. The presence of 
pleasure signifies health and actual increase of vitality. 
It is a distinct benefit to the organism. That organ- 
ism which found benefits unpleasant and injuries 
pleasant could not long survive in the struggle for 
existence. 
A distinction must be drawn between pain and the The Nature 

, . . . ,1 , ^ of Pain and 

unpleasant ; pam is a sensation, and the unpleasant the Unpieas- 
is a feeling. As a sensation, pain is the content of ^"*- 
consciousness arising through an excessive or defec- 
tive stimulation of some sense-organ; or indeed, as 
the physiological psychologists say, through the stim- 
ulation of certain so-called pain nerves; or, still again, 
through some not well- understood inner cortical excite- 

2IS 



2 1 6 The Psychological Principles of Education 

ment. As a feeling the sense of the unpleasant, the 
disagreeable, the discomforting, is the attitude con- 
sciousness always takes toward the sensations of pain, 
as indeed toward any form of abnormal activity or 
interrupted, halting thinking. The sensation of pain 
together with its regularly accompanying feeUng of 
discomfort and displeasure signifies unnatural physical 
conditions, disease, and decrease of vitality. Pain 
means injury to the organism. Even when survival 
is possible under habitually painful surroundings, 
growth is always slow and sometimes arrested. 
The School Considering the place of these experiences in edu- 
pieasurr. catiou, it may be said that the modern idea is that 
the school should be a place of pleasure, and that pain 
and discomfort are tolerated only as occasional neces- 
sities. It should be a pleasure to teachers and pupils 
alike to live and labor in the school home, and also 
to remember it from afar. Here is the place where 
burdens are shared, friendships are made, and mature 
life enters naturally and gladly into immature life, 
thus making it the life abundant. Where pupils stand 
in physical fear of teachers, energy is wasted, thoughts 
are scattered, and mental progress retarded. The 
studies pursued should give that apocalypse of life 
in which the maturing consciousness rejoices. As 
Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Tranio, adviser 
of Lucentio, concerning his studies — 

"No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en." 

And Sydney Smith is not all wrong when he says 
somewhere, "li you make children happy now, you 
make them happy twenty years hence." And those 



Pleasure and Pain in Education 217 

happy grown-ups twenty years from now, in the midst 
of the busy details of life, will in gratitude continue 
and increase the support of that educational system 
which is the joy-bringer to youthful lives. The pain- 
ful sensations and the discomforting feelings are occa- 
sionally really necessary in the modern school, but 
they are there as incidental, not regular, experiences, 
and as corrective and reformative, not vindictive or 
even retributive. 

This modern idea of the school as a place of pleasure The Former 
is one of the signs of the educational progress that has pjace of 
been made within the memory of this generation, p^*"- 
The mediaeval school and its long line of successors 
was founded on the pain regime. In Shakespeare's 
famous seven ages of man the whining schoolboy with 
his satchel and shining morning face creeps like a 
snail unwillingly to school. No small contribution of 
Charles Dickens to educational practice was the arous- 
ing of the English conscience to the sufferings of pupils 
in schools. To many the old three R's meant "the 
rule of the ruler." And in his own vividly realistic 
fashion, Carlyle has told us in "Sartor Resartus" of the 
Hinterschlag professors who "knew syntax enough, 
and of the human soul this much: that it has a 
faculty called memory, and could be acted on through 
the muscular integuments by appliance of birch-rods." 

Another fact concerning pleasure and pain signifi- Pleasure and 
cant for educational uses is that they are the natural Moral Con- 
moral consequences in the end of good and bad con- sequences, 
duct. The moral order of our world means at least 
that the ultimate issue justifies righteousness and 



2 1 8 The Psychological Principles of Education 

that wickedness cannot be committed with impunity. 
Not that the outcome alone, apart from the motive, 
gives the moral quality to the act, whether good or 
bad, but that the act and its conclusions are parts of 
one piece. The right and wrong are to be followed 
and eschewed because of both what they are and to 
what they lead. With young children having unde- 
veloped moral perceptions, and often with children of 
older growth, the consequences of the deed are more in- 
fluential than the moral quaUty of the deed itself. " Do 
right, though the heavens fall," is the motto of the 
morally quick soul; but, ''do right, and the heavens 
won't fall," is rather the strengthening motto for the 
morally immature, whether young or old. Thus the 
observant Bain writes, "I should not be far out in 
saying that seventy-five per cent of the average moral 
faculty is the rough and ready response of the will to 
the constituted penalties and rewards of society." ^ 
The Alpha Now, the significance for educators of pleasure and 

of Moral . , • r i i • i -i 

Training. P^Lin as moral consequences is twofold, practical and 
theoretical. Practically, indelible associations must 
be formed by the school order between the right deed 
once done and its consequent pleasure. Let no worthy 
deed go unapproved, speak the spontaneous word of 
commendation at the well-meaning and the well-doing 
of the pupils. Likewise, an association must be in- 
grained between the unworthy deed and its painful 
consequence. Once an unlovely deed is totally ignored, 
and the school so far forth ceases to be a moral order. 
And theoretically, following in the wake of the pre- 

* Alexander Bain, "Education as a Science," p. 58. 



Pleasure and Pain in Education 219 

ceding practice, certain definite lessons may be taught 
older pupils, such as, the painful consequences of 
wrong-doing and the pleasurable consequences of right- 
doing. It was one of the seven wise men of Greece, 
Chilo of Sparta, to whom are attributed those words 
of guidance, " Consider the end." It is a high and late 
type of organism that is capable thus of living con- 
sciously in the future in addition to the present; 
it is a privilege not shared by man with lower 
creatures, the abuse of which means that man's 
life, controlled by appetites and impulses of the 
moment, is lowered from its high estate to the 
animal plane of existence. Children, like animals, 
instinctively seek pleasure and avoid pain. The idea 
is so to link these elemental aims of action with right 
and wrong that the pupil's nervous system sponta- 
neously and habitually does right and avoids wrong. 
This pleasure-pain basis is the alpha of moral training ; 
its omega, let us hope, is that loftier region where 
right in itself is the object of love and wrong the object 
of hatred. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. Dickens as an Educator. 

2. Corporal Punishment. 

3. Rewards and Prizes. 

References on Pleasure and Pain 

Bain, Education as a Science, pp. 57-60. 
Calkins, Introduction to Psychology, pp. 71-76. 
James, Briefer Psychology, pp. 67-69. 
Stout, Manual of Psychology, pp. 210-217. 
Thomas, L'Education des Sentiments, chs. I and III. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



CONTROLLING THE COARSER EMOTIONS 



The Usual 
Theory of 
the Emo- 
tions. 



After the elementary come the complex feelings, 
and the first class of the complex feehngs we found to 
be the coarser emotions. These are such experiences as 
anger, hate, fear, grief, love, and jealousy. They are 
mostly instinctive in origin, imbedded in the nervous 
system of children, and only awaiting the fitting stim- 
ulus upon which to break forth. The problem of 
the teacher here is not so much how to arouse them 
as how to control them, once aroused. To assist us 
in solving this question, we must inquire somewhat 
carefully into their nature. 

Is the emotion the cause of its bodily expression, 
or is the bodily expression the cause of the emotion? 
Does a man tremble and quake because he is fright- 
ened, or is he frightened because he trembles and 
quakes? Do we cry because we are grieved, or are 
we grieved because we cry? Do we strike because 
we are mad, or are we mad because we strike? Until 
a few years ago there was but one answer to these 
questions, the former alternative in each case being 
defended. The perceived idea or object, it was held, 
caused the emotion, and the emotion caused the physi- 
cal expression. We see a wild animal loose, v/e become 
frightened, and run away. Since it is the emotion 



Controlling the Coarser Emotions 221 

that causes the expression, this position is known as 
the *' cause theory" of the emotions. Charles Darwin 
defended this view in his well-known volume on ''The 
Expression of the Emotions." And it is still the cus- 
tomary view. 

But great names oppose it. A dozen years ago or The 
so, Professor William James and the Danish psychol- Theory. ' 
ogist, Karl Lange, brought out about the same time 
the contrary view, viz. that the emotion is not due 
directly to the perceived object and its influence on 
consciousness, but to those physiological expressions 
that at once follow the perception of the exciting object 
and report themselves to consciousness in the form 
of internal sensations. First the perceived object, 
then physiological changes in heart, lungs, viscera, etc., 
then the emotion. We see a wild animal loose, we 
have palpitation of the heart, cessation of breathing, 
rising hair, blanched cheeks, trembling limbs, etc., and 
then the emotion of fear. In brief, the peculiar jeel 
of any emotion is due to the sensational reports from 
the bodily organs. Since it is the expression that 
causes the emotion, this position is known as the " effect 
theory" of the emotions. It has been adopted in whole 
or in part by those physiological psychologists who 
are ready to explain the mind by the body, but not 
the body by the mind. 

The arguments for the "James-Lange theory," as its Element 
it is called, cannot be wholly gainsaid. The man 
who has been insulted, but shows no signs of it without 
or within, does not really feel insulted, though he may 



222 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Its Insuffi- 
ciency. 

Exciting 
Ideas. 



Influence of 
Associations. 



think he ought to feel so. The man who with smooth 
natural countenance and loose muscles calmly an- 
nounced that he was raging mad would not be believed ; 
and he whose grief has no moist eye, or broken voice, 
or lump in the throat, or contraction of the chest, does 
not really feel grieved. The sensational reports of 
the physiological changes consequent on the perception 
of the exciting object constitute thus an essential ele- 
ment in the emotion. 

But to agree in part is not to agree in whole. Why 
should the perception of the wild tiger cause the bodily 
changes in question but for its own emotional quality ? 
Not every object perceived thus sets the body out of 
gear. It is the dangerous, the insulting, the beloved, 
the hated, the missed, object that alone suffices thus 
to throw the body askew. Manifestly, some ideas are 
felt as exciting directly, and some are not ; and it is the 
exciting ideas that can upset the body, while the unex- 
citing ideas leave us unmoved. The insulting word is 
first understood, then rejected by consciousness, and 
the expression of its rejection appears physiologically. 

Again, reflection shows it is not the perception alone, 
but its associations, that cause the bodily changes. 
A child, for example, might not be afraid of the tiger, 
but rather interested in its black and yellow stripes. 
This shows that the mind contributes from itself some- 
thing toward the emotion. The m.an is afraid because 
he knows ; that he is afraid because he feels himself 
trembling is secondary. Now Professor James admits 
that the subtler emotions may be cerebral in origin,^ 

1 "Briefer Psychology," p. 384. 



Controlling the Coarser Emotions 223 

that is, due to associated brain paths corresponding to 
the ideas that excite the emotions. This admission 
is all we need to show that the coarser emotions also 
in their early and incipient stages may be cerebral 
and not peripheral in origin. 

Again, if the theory were strictly true, we should Discrepan- 
expect that different bodily expressions would give us 
different emotions, but we find, on the contrary, that 
such discrepant expressions as weeping and dancing 
may alike be for joy; also, we should expect that the 
same bodily expression would give us the same emo- 
tion, but we find, on the contrary, that tears may mean 
joy or grief. 

And, finally, certain recent experiments of M. A. Experiments. 
Mayer ^ on the influence of mental images on secre- 
tions show that the greater the pleasure taken in food 
the greater the quantity of the digestive secretions. 
Here the pleasure preceded and caused the secretions, 
the secretions did not cause the pleasure, though the 
comfortable stomachic sensations probably increased 
the pleasure. 

Putting all these objections together, and at the Our Con- 
same time remembering the element of truth we found 
in this peripheral theory of the emotions, we must con- 
clude that the coarser emotions are due to exciting 
ideas as well as to their accompanying bodily states. 
First the perceived object or idea, then the incipient 
emotion, then the physiological expression, and finally 
the intensified and full-rounded emotion. The phys- 
iological expression has increased, not caused, the 

^ Journal de Psychologic j 1904. 



224 The Psychological Principles of Education 

emotion. The boy sees the bear, becomes frightened, 
begins to run, and becomes more frightened. A dear 
loss is recognized, we feel grieved, and give way, and 
feel more grieved, until exhaustion ensues. The 
exciting idea and the accompanying bodily state ac- 
count together for the complete emotion. To have 
the idea of the insult without the physical expression 
is to be only half-mad ; to have the physical expression 
without the idea is to feign anger. And the sum of 
our inquiry is that the coarser emotions depend upon 
their exciting ideas and the accompanying physiolog- 
ical changes. Perhaps the practical educational ser- 
vice of this conclusion will justify us in having made 
the preceding theoretical inquiry. 

The Control How then shall we control the coarser emotions 
Coarser in either ourselves or our pupils ? Now the idea which 

Emotions. jg responsible in part for the emotion is subject to 
change, through the redirection of attention. For- 
get it, put it aside, think of something else, become 
otherwise engrossed, and the emotion tends to fade 
away. Cling to it, brood over it, hold it fast, exclude 
inhibiting or contradictory ideas, and the emotion 
tends to remain. Further, the bodily expression 
which is also responsible in part for the emotion, in 
so far as it makes use of the voluntary muscles of the 
body which is largely the real case, is subject to control. 
Give way to it, encourage it, assist it, anticipate it, 
and the emotion remains. Oppose it, check it, with- 
hold it, struggle against it, prevent it, and the emotion 
tends to pass away. In short, to secure the presence 



Controlling the Coarser Emotions 225 

of one of the coarser emotions, were that desirable, 
encourage the ideas and acts that mean the emotion, 
as did Antony over great Caesar's murdered body; 
and to control them, which is the more frequently 
necessary, change the ideas and repress the expression, 
as panics are sometimes avoided by music. Our par- 
tial disagreement with the James-Lange theory permits 
us to reach the emotion through the side of the idea 
as well as the side of the act. 

One particular thing is to be observed. An emotion start early 

i . or wait. 

just gettmg under way may be easily repressed, even 
in a crowd where suggestion is mighty. Once under 
headway, however, even in an individual, trying to 
repress it may be in vain, or even a stimulus. Try 
to repress the rising sense of the ridiculous, and it be- 
comes all the more obstreperous within. Better out 
with it, and over with it, once it has its start. Similarly, 
let a passion, once aroused, first subside, whether anger, 
love, or hate, before attempting to handle it. 

The whole of the direction of the coarser emotions Think and 
from the intellectual side is included in the old Biblical 
proverb, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he; " 
and from the volitional side we cannot do better than 
quote him whose contribution to the question has 
done so much in recent years to clear up the whole 
field of feeling. Professor James, who writes: "Refuse 
to express a passion, and it dies. Count ten before 
venting your anger, and its occasion seems ridiculous. 
Whistling to keep up courage is no mere figure of 
speech. On the other hand, sit all day in a mop- 
ing posture, sigh, and reply to everything with a dis- 

Q 



226 The Psychological Principles of Education 

mal voice, and your melancholy lingers. There is 
no more valuable precept in moral education than 
this, as all who have experience know; if we wish 
to conquer undesirable emotional tendencies in our- 
selves, we must assiduously, and in the first instance 
cold-bloodedly, go through the outward movements 
of those contrary dispositions which we prefer to culti- 
vate. The reward of persistency will infallibly come, 
in the fading out of the sullenness or depression, and 
the advent of real cheerfulness and kindliness in their 
stead. Smooth the brow, brighten the eye, contract 
the dorsal rather than the ventral aspect of the frame, 
and speak in a major key, pass the genial compli- 
ments, and your heart must be frigid indeed if it do 
not gradually thaw!" ^ 

Problems for Further Study 

1. Origin of Expressions of Emotion. 

2. The Function of Emotion. 

3. A List of the Coarser Emotions. 

References on the Coarser Emotions 

Angell, Psychology, ch. XIX. 

Bain, Education as a Science, pp. 72-81. 

Calkins, Introduction to Psychology, pp. 285-298. 

Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, ch. XVI. 

James, Principles of Psychology, ch. XXV. 

James, "The Gospel of Relaxation," in Talks to Teachers. 

Stout, Manual of Psychology, pp. 289-297. 

Thomas, L'Education des Sentiments, chs. VIII and IX. 

Thorndike, Elements of Psychology, pp. 172-174. 

^ James, "Principles of Psychology," Vol. II, p. 463. 



CHAPTER XIX 

DEVELOPING THE ALTRUISTIC FEELINGS 

In the description of the growth of feeling in chapter 
XV, it was shown that the first feehngs are mainly 
egoistic, and later appear the altruistic feelings. It 
was there stated that the transition from one of these 
stages to the other would occupy us in a later chapter, 
and to this question we now come. 

The term altruism was given currency by the French The Origin 

... . , 11. of Altruism. 

positivist, Auguste Comte. To mm all knowledge is 
limited to sensational experience, and consequently 
both the rehgious and the philosophical attitudes are 
to him relics of a past immaturity. Nothing ultimate is 
known or knowable. With the passing away of aU 
unseen values on this basis, with the dethronement of 
God, Comte had to substitute something to which the 
affections of men might chng and for which they might 
labor. Altruism served this purpose in his system. It 
was to him a kind of religion of humanity, the worship 
of the best thing included in the sensible experience of 
man. In the absence of more ultimate values, man 
himself became the object of most worth. This some- 
what pathetic origin, as I think, of the conception of 
altruism by no means blinds us to an element of truth 
that it contains. It is better to love one's fellow-man 
in the absence of God than not at all, — perhaps it is 

227 



228 The Psychological Principles of Education 

still better to love him in the presence of God. The 
increasing tribe of Abou Ben Adhem makes the earth a 
more habitable place in which to dwell, even though 
there be a certain infinite loneliness everywhere. And 
it is this love of man, this real regard for the welfare 
of others, for which Comte and altruism stand. 
The Problem j^ is a codc of couduct much in advance of that un- 
Chapter. couscious sclfishncss which children in school so in- 
stinctively display. For the ordinary Hfe of the child 
is self-centred. Nature has made him helpless and 
given him the means of making others solicitously 
aware of his helplessness. The home places the elders 
at the disposition of the youngest child. The earlier 
years mean that others give and he receives. It is no 
small thing for the child to enter school, a social in- 
stitution where he is not the centre he was in the 
domestic order. The pupil with whom we begin is, by 
nature, and partly also by training, a little egoist. He 
is without doubt also a latent natural altruist. 

But how different is the right life of the youth and 
man, regardful of the welfare of others, thinking of 
another's comfort rather than their own, preferring to 
give rather than receive pleasure, even sacrificing bodily 
comforts for friendship's sake, even indeed for a needy 
stranger's sake. The youth needs to have become 
altruistic, and he has not always done so. 

Here, then, we reach the statement of our problem in 
developing the altruistic feelings. It is, namely, to 
effect wisely and surely the transition from the charac- 
teristic egoism of childhood to the altruism of youth 
and manhood, to supplement regard for self by regard 






Developing the Altruistic Feelings 229 

for others, to transform the self-centred life into the 
life with the divided centre. In a recent attractive and 
valuable discussion I find one of the results to be striven 
for in moral education stated in a fashion to illustrate 
the idea of altruism, "The gradual extension of sym- 
pathy (or of personality) over an ever widening area of 
life, so that the individual comes to feel the pain and 
the joy of all other Hves as somewhat like his own." ^ 
To feel the universal human life and not neglect one's 
neighbors, to widen one's personahty to cover sympa- 
thetically distant famines, persecutions, atrocities, dis- 
asters, and not forget one's poor relatives, to love hu- 
manity and help the uninteresting men one knows, — to 
bring naturally egoistic children into this good estate 
is our practical problem. Not that our youngest 
children are totally egoistic, I repeat, but dominantly so. 

At this point it is pertinent to note that we as Are all Men 
teachers through observation or study may have come 
under the influence of a chilling hedonistic philosophy, 
that all men are fundamentally selfish, that to avoid 
pain and get pleasure is the main motive of man, that 
sentiments of unselfishness and charity are signs of a 
weakening civilization as it becomes increasingly re- 
moved from a sturdy animal ancestry struggling for 
survival. We are particularly Hkely to meet the posi- 
tion that every man is working for himself without 
considering the welfare of his fellows in certain depart- 
ments of our life, for example, just now in business. 
A recent editorial comment runs, "Business is not 

* E. H. Griggs, "Moral Education," p. 43. 



230 The Psychological Principles of Education 

amenable to sentiment unless pressure is brought to 
bear upon it from the standpoint of effect upon reve- 
nues." ^ And "business is business" is an old saying 
recently dramatized, while not infrequently one hears 
statements meaning that personal standards of in- 
tegrity are not applicable in the business world. This 
evidence all looks toward establishing the self-centred 
life of manhood on a conscious basis which in child- 
hood we find on an unconscious basis. I refer to 
. this doctrine of universal selfishness to combat it 
both as an ideal of hfe and as a fact. For, if it were 
desirable or true that all men are primarily for them- 
selves, the problem of developing the altruistic feelings 
would be insoluble. The teacher must have his phi- 
losophy of manhood, and he must harbor no idea or 
ideal untrue to the nature and dignity of man. 

For this reason let me attempt to disprove the 
apparently growing assumption that all men are self- 
centred, — not that any of my readers hold this posi- 
tion, . but perchance that they may see more clearly 
why they never could hold it. Is it not, first, a bad 
A Poor interpretation of a devoted love, such, for example, as 

Interpreta- f^ ^ . ^ ' .'..,/, 

tionofa a cold and starvmg mother snows m givmg her food 
Love*^^ and raiment to her children ; such as a hero of the faith 
has in leaving behind country, friends, and relatives 
to carry good news to a less favored people ; such as a 
brave fireman incurs in risking his life, sometimes giving 
it, for the life of another? To talk about the mother 
thereby avoiding the pangs of an outraged conscience, 
the missionary seeking thereby the pleasures of heaven, 

^ Boston Commercial, June 10, 1905. 



Developing the Altruistic Feelings 231 

or the fireman working to become a Carnegie hero, as 
their essential motives, seems indeed paltry, and un- 
worthy even what we know to be true of our weak 
selves. 

Again, the position in question makes gratitude Gratitude 
meanmgless. The emotion of gratitude naturally 
arises in noble natures whenever another renders an 
unpaid service, or puts the quality of the free spirit 
into a paid service. Words expressive of gratitude rise 
spontaneously to the hps. But the theory checks them 
there and logically prevents their utterance, for this 
deed after all was not done for me, the grateful one, 
but for himself, the doer. Every channel of gratitude 
between man and man is shut in consistency by such a 
view. 

And affain, it is bad introspective psychology to re- p°°^ 

, , . \ . . , , . Psychology. 

port that men are always m their motives looking out 
first for number one. On this point let me quote the 
inimitable past master in psychology. Professor James, 
who writes: "So widespread and searching is this in- 
fluence of pleasures and pains upon our movements 
that a premature philosophy has decided that these are 
our only spurs to action, and that wherever they seem 
to be absent, it is only because they are so far on among 
the 'remote' images that prompt the action that they 
are overlooked. 

''This is a great mistake, however. Important as 
is the influence of pleasures and pains upon our move- 
ments, they are far from being our only stimuli. . . . 
However the actual impulsions may have arisen, they 
must now be described as they exist ; and those persons 



232 The Psychological Principles of Education 

obey a curiously narrow teleological superstition who 
think themselves bound to interpret them in every in- 
stance as effects of the secret solicitancy of pleasure and 
repugnancy of pain. If the thought of pleasure can 
compel to action, surely other thoughts may.'* ^ 

And lastly, this theory is bad evolutionary ethics. 
This consideration touches the quick of the matter, for 
here the theory in its modern form originated. The 
animals survive through a struggle by might for exist- 
ence ; man carries on the same struggle in the field of 
conscious competition. Self-preservation in him too 
is nature's first law. Not to resist evil, to give the other 
cheek, to go the second mile, — these are the virtues of 
menials and slaves, not of the typical sons of nature, 
nor of the super-men that are to be. The weak, the 
infirm, the imbecile, the insane, the inmates of hospitals 
and asylums, these are the modern social incubus, they 
are not fit to survive, they ought not to be kept in exist- 
ence. Thus Friedrich Nietzsche in Germany, thus 
Bernard Shaw in England. 

These men are lovers of power. They rebuke the 
Christian world for its lack of power. They are called 
into existence because the church is not the social power 
it might be. Their mistake is that they do not see the 
inherent power in the Christian message. Perhaps they 
see it more than they allow, and only wear the mask 
of hardness and egotism in a soft, weak age. So at 
least thinks James Huneker, who writes of Shaw in the 
"Iconoclasts," "Nearly all his earnings went to the 
needy ; his was, and is, a practical socialism. He never 

^ James, "Briefer Psychology," pp. 445-446. 



Developing the Altruistic Feelings 233 

let his right hand know the extent of his charities, and 
mark this, no one else knew of it. Yet good deeds, like 
murder, will out. His associates ceased deriding his 
queer clothes, the flannel shirt and the absence of even- 
ing dress ; his money was spent on others. So, too, his 
sawdust menu — his carrots, cabbages, and brown 
bread — it did not cost much, his eating, for his money 
was needed by poorer folk." So is a man better than 
his creed ; so do his morals outrun his ethics. 

But the creed itself, does nature indeed justify it? Is N^^^re also 
she so productive of the selfish right of might? John 
Fiske, in his controversy with Huxley on this point, 
maintained that the moral is also a natural principle, 
and writes on ''The Cosmic Roots of Love and Self- 
sacrifice." ^ The processes of generation, of birth, of 
maternal defence, of masculine protection, of rearing 
young, are all the instinctive giving of life for life among 
nature's animal children. And Prince Kropotkin well 
writes his ''Mutual Aid" to show that evolution has 
not taken place solely by selfishness. A universe whose 
gifts to man are free for his appropriation and which 
out of its fertile womb has given life and consciousness 
to man cannot be justly described as being soulless and 
immoral at heart. And the highest souls of men, the 
prophets and our Martyr-Teacher, refuse to be gauged 
by the standard of self. 

And the sum of it is, as I think, we as teachers, in Conclusion 
the work of upbuilding humanity in the image of God, universal 
as Pestalozzi expressed it, are not handicapped by any ^g°^^^"^- 
such blighting conception and are free to use what 

* This essay in "Through Nature to God." 



^34 The Psychological Principles of Education 

efforts are at our disposal to bring our pupils out of 
their dominant egoism into the clear place of social re- 
gard. And how shall we do it? 



Utilize the 
Instinct of 
Sympathy. 



Get the Feel- 
ing through 
the Act. 



Let me attempt to make certain definite suggestions 
toward the solution of this problem with which we 
began. Our nervous systems are so constituted that 
at the sight of suffering they instinctively respond in 
sympathy and fellow-feeling. Even an image of absent 
suffering, if vivid, may suffice to call out this instinctive 
sympathetic reaction. Utilize such instinctive expres- 
sions of feeling in some practical way; that is, do not 
let a feeling of sympathy once present in the school as a 
whole or in an individual evaporate without first having 
directed it into some practical outlet. What will they 
do to show their sympathy, is the question to put. A 
visit to the afflicted individual or home, a gift of flowers, 
reading with the sick or for the blind, assistance to the 
deficient pupil, or money for the deserving poor, serve 
to illustrate the practical expressions of a sympathetic 
feeling instinctively aroused. Not to put the feeling 
into action is to weaken its impulsive power when next 
felt ; to concrete the feeling in action is to form a path- 
way of discharge for future similar deeds of service. 

It may be that the capital of feeling is absent and 
we have nothing but the bare situation with which to 
begin. But at least the pupils stand in need of mutual 
assistance and they are subject to our direction. Secure 
kind action toward others, even cold-bloodedly at first, 
if necessary, and the proper feeling will follow. The 
voluntary performance of an altruistic deed tends to 



Developing the Altruistic Feelings 235 

generate in its train the altruistic feeling. Do the 
deed, even with effort, that the feeling, if present, 
would prompt, and the feeling arises in the train of the 
deed. Aristotle somewhere observes that we love 
those whom we have benefited more than they love us ; 
and Hoffding shows that in the proscriptions of Sulla it 
was sometimes the case that the son betrayed the father, 
but the father the son never. Interest, affection, de- 
votion, follow the deeds of service. 
An altruistic feeling needs an environment that stimu- Reveal the 

. . , , . Altruistic 

lates and appreciates it. This environment we cannot Nature. 
always count upon in the home. Not infrequently 
cuffs and kicks and cruel blows are the daily portion of 
at least some of our pupils in their so-called homes. 
They have never been shown that consideration we 
desire them to show others ; they are ignorant of kind- 
ness. For such we must supply in the school that en- 
vironment stimulative of altruism which they lack in 
the home. Show forth kindness to these in word and 
look and deed, and their blunted and dwarfed natures 
receive the quickening of a revelation, and respond in 
gratitude and loyalty to you like flowers to the sun from 
out unpromising soil. Even the best of mortals are 
loving . because some one first loved them. But a 
word of caution is necessary at this point. Kindness 
unappreciated can spoil its recipient. Therefore be 
just. To the law of kindness in the lips, where it be- 
comes a stumbhng-block of offence, let discernment add 
a firm justice. 
A great deal of the narrowness in the range of our Develop 

1 . r T 1 r • ' ' Imagination. 

sympathies comes from an undeveloped imagination. 



236 The Psychological Principles of Education 

The sufferings that occur under our eyes receive their 
instinctive response ; but the far-off victims of famine, 
pestilence, fire, flood, and war reach only the outskirts 
of our intellects, like fictitious characters in a tale, 
rather than strike through to the deeps of our emotional 
life, and so give us the sense that they are real men and 
women, boys and girls, like ourselves. The trouble is 
with our imagination that cannot see round the earth, 
nor round a corner, nor into another life unlike our 
own comfortable existence. How this imagination 
that can picture to us both the needs and the values of 
a distant life is to be developed is a hard problem.* 
Perhaps less reading of the unreal sufferings of charac- 
ters in fiction for whom we can do nothing and more 
contact with the real sufferings of characters in our 
community for whom we can do something would 
help. The visuaHzing of the far-away calamities, after 
the analogy of these known experiences, would serve 
to bring the remote near. And to take part in sending 
some relief to the children of misfortune will stimulate 
both the imagination and the feeling of fellowship. 
Teach the But there are certain ideas, as well as deeds and the 

Unity of the . . . a - ■, rr 1 t r 1 i «• 

Race. imagmation, which afford a nucleus for the growth of 

altruistic sentiments. One of these is the idea of the 
unity of the human race, the blood relationship of all 
mankind, the offspring of a common Father, brethren of 
a common life, and heirs of a common eternity. Teach 
and exemplify this lesson in the sense in which you 
believe it and yourself feel it. Men are bom free; 

^ See Professor James's Essay, " On a Certain Blindness in Human 
Nature," in his "Talks to Teachers." 



Developing the Altruistic Feelings 237 

they are not born equal in capacity or in opportunity. 
The idea of human kinship suggests that the capable and 
the privileged share the burdens of the less capable and 
the less privileged as children of one family whose 
Head is no respecter of persons. 
There are certain ideals too whose presence in con- speak for 

the Ideals of 

sciousness stimulates regard for the common welfare, Living, 
such as goodness, beauty, chivalry, and charity. Pupils, 
like other people, are responsive to ideals that have 
passed out of vagueness and generahty into precision 
and concreteness. What is it to lead the good, the 
beautiful, the loving type of life? It is to recognize 
the present definite situation which permits one person 
to help another, it is to perform that single serviceable 
act in simplicity of mind, it is to feel in consequence that 
nothing has been done worthy of mention, that the ser- 
vant is unprofitable to his master, and but delighting 
to do what is his duty to do. Speak for the ideals of 
living, let them enkindle the feelings of brotherly kind- 
ness, and annex them in some fashion to the next deed 
to be done. 

And, in developing the altruistic feelings, my last incorporate 
suggestion is, get for the school a share in the current Sympathies, 
sympathies that ever and anon are sweeping over our 
country. Like suggestion through a crowd, a wave of 
sympathy passes over our nation; its President is as- 
sassinated, its dwellers on the gulf are swept away with 
a flood, it goes to war as a knight for the relief of an 
oppressed people on a neighboring isle of the sea, it 
resents massacres due to race prejudice abroad, homes 
and lives are taken by earthquake and fire on its 



238 The Psychological Principles of Education 

I 

western coast, — the heart of the nation is throbbing, ^ 

and the school must feel it. Omitting the antipathies 
that divide men, nations, and races, the school must 
incorporate those pulsations of feeling which scorn space 
and race and make us one with our fellows the world 
over. 

So may we pass from the egoism of boys and girls 
to the altruism of men and women ! 

Problems for Further Study i 



1. Evolutionary Ethics. 

2. Auguste Comte. 

3. Friedrich Nietzsche. 

4. Bernard Shaw. 



References on the Altruistic Feelings 



Dexter and GarHck, Psychology in the Schoolroom, ch. XVII. 

Griggs, Moral Education, ch. V. 

James, Briefer Psychology, pp. 444-448. 

Sully, The Teachers' Handbook of Psycholog}^, pp. 461-468. 

Thilly, "The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche," Popular 

Science Monthly, December, 1905. 
Thomas, L'Education des Sentiments, chs. XV-XIX. 



i 



CHAPTER XX 

iESTHETIC EDUCATION 

We now come to a consideration of the last and its Nature. 
largest reach of the emotional life of man, viewed in its 
comparative distinctness from the other elements of 
his nature. The highest development of the life of 
feeh iig is in its relationship to the ideal of beauty. By 
aesthetic education is meant the cultivation of taste, 
the development of the sense of beauty inherent in all, 
resulting in the enjoyment, the critical appreciation, 
and sometimes the production, of works of art. Taste 
involve: an intellectual discernment of artistic values 
as well a^ an emotional sensitiveness to artistic products. 
As Sully expresses it, "The aesthetic faculty or taste 
consists of the combination of the emotional susceptibil- 
ity to the pleasurable effects of what is charming, noble, 
and so on, with the intellectual power of discriminating, 
comparing, and judging." ^ The primary purpose in 
aesthetic education is to bring pupils into the enjoyment 
of the great natural and human artistic products. 
Secondary to this is the purpose of enabling them to 
estimate artistic values. And secondary to both of these 
is the purpose of making them producers of art. As 
Ruskin has it, "It is surely a more important thing for 
young people and unprofessional students to know how 

^ Sully, "Outlines of Psychology," p. 540. 
239 



240 The Psychological Principles of Education 

to appreciate the art of others than to gain much power 
in art themselves." ^ If we succeed as teachers :in 
bringing pupils into the intelligent enjoyment of ait, 
we may trust nature to make artists of such of them as 
she will. 

Because of our present practical purpose, there are 
many attractive subjects at this point whose discussion 
we must forego, such as, the nature of the aesthedc 
emotion ; its development in the race and the individual ; 
the instincts with which it is particularly connected, 
such as the social and the playful; the nature md 
characteristics of beauty; and the relations of beauty 
and sublimity.^ Passing by these fascinating inquiries 
as not bearing immediately on our endeavor to culti- 
vate the taste of young people, though presupposing 
some of the results of such inquiries, let us notice both 
the neglect and the importance of aesthetic education 
in our day, and then see what the school should do to 
develop the aesthetic sense of its pupils. 



The Neglect 
of Esthetic 
Education. 



As a Part of 

Emotional 

Education. 



Viewed in comparison with physical, intellectual, or 
moral education, it may with practical certainty be 
said that aesthetic education is suffering neglect in 
modern schools. This is evidenced by three considera- 
tions. 

First, as a part of the emotional life of pupils, aesthetic 
education in particular has suffered the fate of emotional 
education in general, that is, it has had no independent 

^ Quoted by Samson, "Elements of Art Criticism," p. 195. 
^ For these and similar matters, cf. Miss Puffer, "The Psychology 
of Beauty." 



^Esthetic Education 241 

footing in the usual run of common modern educational 
opinion. Even Herbart, for example, gives the feel- 
ings no independent place beside intellect and will, 
nor do Schopenhauer, Fechner, and Paulsen. The 
emotions, including the aesthetic sense, have usually 
been catalogued with will. 

Second, the place occupied by the art subjects in the Smaii Place 
curriculum is not at all comparable with the intel- curriculum, 
lectual subjects, nor even with the moral subjects. 
The sciences are more prominent than art, I mean all 
the sciences taken together, — the linguistic as well as 
the physical and natural, and the historical and social 
subjects are equal, if not superior, in courses and hours 
to the art studies. Literature, drawing, and vocal 
music practically carry the burden of the educational 
values in art. 

And third, expert and influential educational opinion S^^"^5 ^" , 

' ^ ^ Educational 

has omitted to dignify the courses of art, too frequently Discussion, 
still referred to as the "fads and frills" in education. 
In his ''Philosophy of Education," for instance, Rosen- 
kranz gives no significant attention to the ideal of 
beauty, no consideration comparable to that bestowed 
upon the ideals of health, truth, morality, and religion. 
Herbert Spencer, to take another instance, whose essays 
on education have been so influential for nearly fifty 
years, and have been ranked by W. H. Payne with the 
"Emile" of Rousseau and the "Republic" of Plato as 
the world's three classics on the subject, is openly neg- 
lectful of the aesthetic interests. Writing of the accom- 
plishments, the fine arts, belles-lettres, etc., Spencer says 
"As they occupy the leisure part of life, so should they 



242 The Psychological Principles of Education 

occupy the leisure part of education." This spirit of 
Spencer, that puts the useless last, is dominating both 
our education and our lives. An age of utility that 
judges the fitness of things to survive by the biological 
standard of their use in the struggle for existence has 
found Httle place for the useless, even though it be 
beautiful. 



It was not ever so in educational opinion as we go 
backward, nor can it long remain so, for aesthetic 
education is in importance second to none. The general 
aim of Emile's education is not very lofty, namely, to 
quote Davidson,^ "to prepare him, not for a Hfe of 
earnest, determined moral struggle and self-sacrifice, 
but for a life of quiet, cleanly, assured sensuous delight ; 
not for a life of active enterprise, but for a life of passive 
dalliance." Yet, even with this low general aim, 
Rousseau placed a high estimate upon the value of 
aesthetic education, writing, ''My principal object in 
teaching him to feel and love the beautiful in all its 
forms is to fix his affections and his tastes, to prevent 
his natural appetites from degenerating, and himself 
from one day seeking in his riches the means of happi- 
ness which he ought to find nearer home." ^ These 
words might well describe American society to-day, in 
which, as Edward Atkinson says, the ability to make 
money easily transcends the ability to spend it wisely. 

Going back to Plato we find even a loftier aim of 
education than that proclaimed by Spencer in his 

^ Davidson, "Rousseau," p. 177. 
* Op. cit.y p. 176. 



^Esthetic Education 243 

famous statement, ''To fit us for complete living is 
the function which education has to discharge," for 
to Plato this statement would have been acceptable, 
but to him "complete living" would have contemplated 
also the soul's unending destiny, and not simply, as 
with Spencer, its here and now phenomenal existence. 
The message of Greece to the modern world is beauty. 
Concerning those who are to be the educated leaders 
in the ideal state, Plato writes: "We would not have 
our guardians grow up amid images of moral deformity, 
as in some noxious pasture, and there browse and feed 
upon many a baneful herb and flower day by day, 
little by Httle, until they silently gather a festering mass 
of corruption in their own soul. Let our artists rather 
be those who are gifted to discern the true nature of 
beauty and grace : then will our youth dwell in a land 
of health, amid fair sights and sounds: and beauty, 
the effluence of fair works, will meet the sense like a 
breeze, and insensibly draw the soul even in childhood 
into harmony with the beauty of reason. 

"There can be no nobler training than that, he re- 
plied." ' 

The Greek word to modern education is a beautiful 
mind in a beautiful body, which we, as a practical 
people, so much need in order to supplement the prac- 
tical Roman's ideal which has proven so acceptable 
to us of a sound mind in a sound body. 

Having now seen the comparative neglect of aesthetic The impor- 

T . . , .1.11 tanceof 

education m modern times, and reviewed the great Esthetic 

Education. 
^ " Republic," p. 401 D, Jowett Tr. 



Education. 



244 The Psychological Principles of Education 

names of Spencer, Rousseau, and Plato on this pressing 
question, let us now see the real importance of cultivat- 
ing their sense of beauty in our pupils. From four 
points of view this importance may be indicated, which 
we may name the recreative, the sociological, the psy- 
chological, and the ethical. 
The Recrea- j^^ aesthetic education introduces and keeps the play 

tive Value of ^ ^ ^ r f j 

^sthetic element in the intellectual life of man, thus affording 
him constant and needed recreatjon as he goes about 
the day's work. The aesthetic emotion is pleasure in the 
perception of the beautiful. The objects that usually 
excite it are fine buildings, good pieces of statuary, a 
picture, a poem, a musical composition, or some attrac- 
tive scene of nature. Upon these the mind dwells in 
happy contemplation, not because of their utiHty, but 
because of their perfection. For their own sakes, not 
for their use to us, they are aesthetically enjoyed. Art 
does not send us seeking further for satisfaction, it 
provides satisfaction here and now for us. The pleasure 
taken in anything for its own sake is an aesthetic pleas- 
ure. Even the day's routine duties are capable of 
artistic performance. So to perform them makes 
work a satisfaction instead of drudgery. The soul with 
a love for aesthetic values is thus continually refreshed 
both through the elements of art in its environment, 
and through the quality of perfection which it introduces 
into its own work. The escape of the soul from its 
labor through some artistic piece led Schopenhauer to 
describe art as "a momentary liberation," and the 
finding of satisfaction in its labor makes service a de- 
light. The same play instinct which in animals and 



iEsthetic Education 245 

children leads them to do things, even fatiguing things, 
for the mere joy of doing them is responsible for that 
play of man's imagination which leads him into both 
the production and the enjoyment of art. Whatsoever 
preserves the play element in man's conscious busy life, 
as art does, increases the sum of human enjoyment, 
adds a clear gain to human existence, and is so an 
absolute human benefit. 

Second, from the sociological point of view, aesthetic J^^ ^°^?" 
education is essential in the adjustment of man to his of the Value 
complete racial environment. The race has bequeathed ° ^' 
to us science and history and art. It is the business 
of education to secure the appropriation of these 
heritages by the new generation. To omit the element 
of art is so far forth to fail in an essential endeavor of 
education. A soul unawakened sesthetically cannot 
feel itself a part of all it meets; it may be at home in 
the realm of scientific fact and of historic deed, but not 
of human ideals. For our joy and inspiration these 
human ideals have been embodied in visible forms by 
the artist geniuses of the race. 

Third, from the psychological point of view, aesthetic ^^^ Educa- 

. . ^ -^ & J:- ' tional value 

education is necessary for the complete development of of Art .viewed 
the individual consciousness. This consciousness is as caUy^°^°^^" 
truly emotional in character as it is intellectual or 
volitional. And the sense of beauty is the finest dif- 
ferentiation of the Hfe of feeling in man. The coldness 
of intellectuality and the narrowness of practicality are 
warmed and widened through the love of the beautiful. 
To an intellectual soul beauty says there are values that 
can be felt which cannot be described; to a practical 



246 The Psychological Principles of Education 

soul beauty says there are useless things which are also 
precious. The knowledge of the truth makes one dis- 
cerning, but not tender ; the vohtion of the good makes 
one correct, but not attractive ; it is the love of beauty 
that unifies a life in one perfect whole. 
The Ethical And fourth, there is also an ethical value in aesthetic 

Value of Art. 1 . i 1 • • i • . 

education, though to state it precisely is not easy, m 
consequence of which there is much confusion at this 
point. Vice seen in its true proportions is monstrous, 
hideous, ugly ; goodness seen in its true proportions is 
attractive, winsome, beautiful. But vice often gilds 
itself and becomes deceptively attractive, and goodness 
often shows itself in Puritanic severity of outline, and 
becomes repellent. Now, in proportion as vice is seen 
to be ugly, the aesthetic soul eschews it; and in pro- 
portion as goodness is seen to be beautiful, the aesthetic 
soul chooses it. Thus in each case the deed is in con- 
formity with the moral standard, its content is correct, 
but the motives have been in each case aesthetic rather 
than moral. The deed is moral in content and aesthetic 
in intent. Such a deed has not, of course, the ethical 
value of one done for righteousness' sake instead of 
for beauty's sake, but it does have all the ethical value 
that attaches to deeds in distinction from motives, and 
this is great, if, as Professor James phrases it, we are 
to know characters by their fruits instead of by their 
roots. 
The Herbart will serve us as an example from the list of 

Herbart. cducators who havc recognized the ethical value of 
aesthetic education. His example is the more striking 
as he makes morality the end of education and would 



^Esthetic Education 247 

make beauty the means to attain the end. He writes : * 

''The one problem, the whole problem, of education 
may be comprised in a single concept, — morahty. . . . 
Such a [an aesthetic] presentation of the universe, of 
all the world that is known, in order to efface, if need 
be, the evil impressions of unfavorable surroundings, 
may justly be termed the chief office of education. . . . 
Periods which no master has described and whose 
spirit no poet breathes are of little value to education." ^ 
Likewise George Eliot writes in ''Romola," ''It seems 
to me beauty is part of the finished language by which 
goodness speaks." 

These things concerning the importance of aesthetic The Problem 

, ? r . 1 1 .1 of Esthetic 

education bring us to face with care the practical Education, 
question of what our aesthetic problem is and how it is 
to be solved in our schools. Our problem is to cultivate 
the sense of beauty, to secure an aesthetic consciousness. 
The sense of beauty is cultivated when the eyes and ears 
and soul are open to the perfections of the work of man 
and nature; when a badly constructed building of- 
fends; when the eye rests with content upon a perfect y< 
statue or a splendid picture; when the ear enjoys a 
symphony, and the soul is thrilled with the meaningful 
messages of literature ; when the hills give strength, and 
the sky exaltation ; when the mountain lake gives peace 
and the ocean stirs a divine discontent within ; when the 
rainbow gives promise, and the sunset, vision, and the 

^ Herbart, "A B C of Sense-Perception," pp. 92, 107, 113, Tr. 
Eckoff. 

The classic discussion of the influence of the assthetic sense on the 
moral sense is in Schiller's "Esthetic Prose." 



248 The Psychological Principles of Education 

evening time, light; when the night brings no terror, 
and the storm a sublime awe ; when all the visible and 
audible forms of nature quicken in man the sense that 
the perfect is here about us in the material world and 
only waiting to be enjoyed; when, in short, man's 
nature is offended at all ugliness and rejoices in all 
beauty. Such aesthetic experiences Wordsworth has 
described in the wonderful lines : — 

I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts ; a sense sublime 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the Hght of setting suns, 
And the round ocean, and the living air. 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man ; 
A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking things, all objects of all thought. 
And rolls through all things. 

In such aesthetic experiences we are emotionally one 
with the beautiful object we enjoy. It is the highest 
type of experience known to man, with the single ex- 
ception of the religious, in which the element of perfec- 
tion in beauty is personified and with which man is then 
consciously united. 

Utilize the How shall this scusc of beauty be cultivated in the 

Environ- schools? First of all, let us utilize the influence of en- 

ment. vironmcnt. The great art educator is continuous, 

attentive association with the best works of beauty. 

The homes from which children come, back to which 

they go, help or hinder us aesthetically, and otherwise. 



^Esthetic Education 249 

Through the influence of parents' meetings and the 
children themselves, the homes should increasingly be- 
come orderly and tasteful. An artistic school environ- 
ment will include such elements as an architecturally 
attractive school building, beautiful and well-kept 
grounds, a school garden tended by pupils and directed 
by teachers, and interior decoration of pictures, stat- 
uary, attractive furnishings, with growing plants and 
flowers, together with an illustrated and readable 
magazine of art. Two characteristics at least the art 
of the schoolroom should possess : it should be artistic 
and interesting. Better a few good pieces of real art 
that fix right standards of beauty than many second- 
rate things. Interesting art to children deals with such 
themes as children, animals, action, movement, with 
groups and colors. Buildings, individuals, static scenes, 
and black and white things are for most pupils unin- 
teresting themes. 

Second, we need to make a larger place for the art Enlarge the 

.' . , ^ . . , , Art Element 

subjects m the curriculum. Literature is perhaps the intheCur- 
only one of the arts that has to-day a fairly adequate 
place in the curriculum. Good representatives of each 
of the other arts ought to be there also. Vocal music, 
particularly the concert singing, needs to be improved, 
and, through the use of the mechanical devices for 
pianofortes so common to-day, pupils should become 
acquainted with the masterpieces of the great composers. 
Work in wood, clay, metal, etc., should continue to come 
into its deserved place, for aesthetic, as well as utilitarian, 
purposes. And the elements of form and color should 
be taught in drawing and art courses. Drawing is 



riculum. 



250 The Psychological Principles of Education 

itself another language whereby ideas are expressed and 
images portrayed. In his "Modern Painters," Ruskin 
writes, "I have no doubt that every child in a civilized 
country should be taught ... to sing perfectly, so 
far as it has capacity, and to draw any definite form 
accurately to any scale." Professor Miinsterberg is of 
the opinion that ''the future battles against this country's 
greatest enemy, vulgarity, will be fought largely with 
the weapons which the drawing teachers supply to the 
masses."^ And in an address on ''The Appreciation 
of Beauty," President Eliot ^ recently said:] "The best 
place to inculcate the love of the beautiful is the school- 
room. To the rising generation the most effective 
lessons can be given, and from the school millions of 
children will carry the lessons to millions of homes. 
After reading, spelling, writing, and ciphering with 
small numbers and in simple operations, drawing 
should be the most important common school subject." 
Improve Third, we need to improve school methods where they 

Methods of ' 11- 

Teaching touch art matters. The teachmg of nature study 
Art Subjects, j^gg^^g |-q bccomc not Icss Scientific, but more sympathetic 
and appreciative. Reading lessons may with interest 
and profit be illustrated by the pupils. Young minds 
need to be feasted with the racial imaginings; the true 
literature for the child is not that written for him, but 
the simpler epics and mythologies of the race. Our 
curriculum has been classicized in its imaginative ele- 
ment, so that now we need, not so much more of Homer 
and of Virgil, as of the stories of the Old Testament 

^ Miinsterberg, "Psychology and Life," p. 147. 

^ Eliot, "The Appreciation of Beauty," Critic^ August, 1905. 



Esthetic Education 251 

and the Norse Eddas. The latter are particularly our 
birthright, and too long Saxon children have been de- 
prived of consciously living through the imaginative 
experiences of their own primitive forbears. In the 
teaching of Hterature, perhaps not less of the linguistic, 
philological, and grammatical, but more appreciation of 
literary form and ideals, is our need. The museum 
and art gallery, where accessible, should be utilized 
by groups of children for observation and study, and 
school excursions may profitably be made to great 
natural or human works of art. And then there are 
the omnipresent natural scenic effects, of whatsoever 
character, if we but have the attentive interest with 
which to regard and utilize them in quickening the 
aesthetic sense. Schiller says, "Works of the imagina- 
tion have the pecuharity of not permitting idle enjoy- 
ment, but of stirring into activity the minds of those 
who contemplate them." Exercise the aesthetic sense, 
then, through letting pupils contemplate works of art, 
and write down their simple, natural impressions. 
"The pupil should study and analyze a series of works 
from the great masters, describing in language in the 
form of essays the general theme and the methods 
adopted of making the work of art tell its own story, 
the technical difficulties and successful devices of the 
artist in completing his work of art." ^ 

Fourth, cultivate a school spirit that stimulates the Cultivate ain 

aesthetically 

aesthetic sense. Such a spirit will include at least the stimulating 

elements of freedom, leisure, and excellence. The school spirit, 

sense of freedom in the school means that individuality freedom. 
1 Proc. N. E. A., 1893, p. 473. 



252 The Psychological Principles of Education 



is not cramped, but is permitted to express itself in its 
natural chosen way. The boy who persists in drawing 
when he should be studying arithmetic may be made 
uncomfortable or he may be provided with crayon and 
paper. To do the one is to repress, to do the other is 
to stimulate, individual growth. Perhaps the greatest 
thing a teacher can do for a pupil is to discover that 
pupil's talent to himself. 

Leisure. The sense of leisure in the school means less restless- 

ness of spirit and more opportunity in which to grow 
aesthetically. It means not so much doing less than we 
now do, though in some cases it means this too, but rather 
the sense of being unhurried. We must work, often 
rapidly, but the patience must be there in which alone 
we possess our souls. Nothing artistic is either pro- 
duced or enjoyed under the sense of hurry. You can- 
not hustle beauty nor make culture hum. America 
is hurried to-day, the school is hurried, and hurry is 
inimical to artistic development ; it is bent on business, 
not on enjoyment. We need to recover something of 
that cultured leisure which the Greeks represented by 
theoriaj and for which Erasmus longed under the term 
otium. The shorter course always omits art, for it is 
rushing toward a practical conclusion, while art has 
repose in itself. 

Excellence. The sensc of excellence is secured by insisting upon 
a certain perfection of quality in every piece of school 
work done. He who has done one thing perfectly for 
its own sake is an artist ; he is kindred to all the artistic 
spirits of the generations. Many pupils have never 
felt the sense of excellence in their own work, they have 



Aesthetic Education 253 

never been stimulated to do their best; but the pupil 
who is quietly permitted to do habitually less than his 
best is being unaesthetically trained. An artist has that 
passion for the perfect which leads him to complete 
even those portions of his work . which human eyes 
will never see. And something of the artist must be in 
us before we can appreciate art. 
And fifth, we must ourselves gradually become become 

1 • \ 1.-11 r • Esthetic 

aesthetic teachers, aesthetic in the conduct of a recita- Teachers. 
tion, aesthetic in the rounded achievement of the day, 
aesthetic in appearance and manner. Some of our time 
and some of our money must go into self-culture, into 
symphonies and poetry and pictures. About twenty 
per cent of the public school teachers of America drop 
out annually and others fill their places; in every five 
years practically the whole teaching force has changed 
its character; it is during the first three years only of 
their service that they buy books in mentionable quan- 
tity; this is the period of their ambition. And yet it 
is also true of teaching that where the vision fails the 
pupils perish. How inspirational is the teaching per- 
sonahty of Socrates, in whose prayer uttered under a 
plane tree by the banks of the Ilissus the American 
teacher needs to join, *' Beloved Pan, and all ye other 
gods who haunt this place, give me beauty in the in- 
ward soul; and may the outward and inward man be 
at one. . . ." ^ Our knowledge of the subjects we 
teach and whatever imitable good our characters may 
possess are without the touch of grace until beauty be 
added, for, as Tennyson sings : — 

^ Plato, "Phaedrus," 279. 



254 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Beauty, Good, and Knowledge are three Sisters 
That dote upon each other, friends to man, 
Living under the same roof. 
And never can be sundered without tears. 

Summary of Thus wc have followed the course of emotional edu- 

Emotional 

Education, cation from simplest beginning to grandest conclusion. 
We have seen the depth, and breadth, and height of 
feelings in life, that they are dependent forms of con- 
sciousness for all they go so deep ; that they are to be 
reached through action and through ideas, that pleasure 
is the bright foreground and pain the dark background 
of school life, that the coarser emotions are to be con- 
trolled through the voluntary muscles and the redirec- 
tion of attention, that the altruistic feelings are a natural 
part of a happy wholesome life, and that the sense of 
beauty is nature's best gift to the emotional life of man. 
If we see the feelings aright, intertwined with all the 
values held dear to man, we shall recognize that in them 
lies life's dynamic, and that to cleanse the heart, whence 
are the issues of life, is the high service emotional 
education is set to render. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Nature of the Esthetic Emotion. 

2. The Individual and Racial Development of the ^Esthetic 

Sense. 

3. Sex, Play, and Beauty. 

4. The Characteristics of Beauty. 

5. Beauty and Sublimity. 

References on ^Esthetic Education 

Bain, Education as a Science, pp. 96-99. 

Burrage and Bailey, School Sanitation and Decoration. 



Aesthetic Education 255 

Dexter and Garlick, Psychology in the Schoolroom, chs. XVIII 

and XIX. 
Johonnot, Principles and Practice of Teaching, ch. XII. 
Morgan, Psychology for Teachers, pp. 145-149. 
Puffer, The Psychology of Beauty. 
Ribot, Psychology of the Emotions, ch. X. 
Samson, Elements of Art Criticism, pp. 192-197. 
Santayana, The Sense of Beauty. 
Schiller, Esthetic Letters. 

Stanley, Evolutionary Psychology of Feeling, ch. XVII. 
Thomas, L'Education des Sentiments, ch. XXIV. 



PART IV 

MORAL EDUCATION, OR EDUCATING THE 
MIND TO WILL 



INTRODUCTION 

The consciousness that constitutes the self of man can The General 
think ; it also feels ; it is also privileged to act. We are Education. 
ready to begin the consideration of consciousness in its 
activity. The general aim of moral education is to 
secure right action on the part of consciousness. As 
truth is the object of thinking, and beauty of feeling, 
so goodness is the object of willing. The good will, 
that is our aim. The good will means that the inner 
activity of consciousness is smooth, easy, and efficient 
as well as that right deeds are done from right motives. 
Moral education must take account of the way in which 
consciousness does its work, as well as its incentives and 
its conduct. There is an intrinsic as well as an extrin- 
sic goodness to be secured to consciousness by moral 
education. 

The roots of will are very much lower dov/n in the Order of 

Discussion. 

nervous system of man than we ordmanly suppose. 
So it will be our first business to map out the field of 
will. Then, beginning as low down as education can 
reach, even with instincts, we have to consider various 
other tap-roots below the surface of choice, such as 
impulse, imitation, and suggestion. Then comes the 
famiHar matter of habits, many of which are already 
fixed for us when the power of deliberation and rational 
choice finally arises. Then follows attention, the real 

2S9 



26o The Psychological Principles of Education 

essence of will, the right education of which both at- 
tracts by its importance and repels by its difficulty. 
This then be our order of march, and let no man cry 
a halt until the will of the child is fully fashioned by all 
these means unto all good works. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE FIELD OF WILL 

^ In introducing the discussion of educating the mind 
to will, we must first see something of the general field 
of will. This bird's-eye view of the subject may be 
gotten by noticing in succession the function, the im- 
portance, the nature, and the development of will. 

By the function of the will we mean the purpose that The Func- 

, . .,. , . r^, . ^ . . tionofWill. 

it serves, its utility to the organism. This function m 
the case of the will seems to be to provide the organism 
with a means of adjustment to its environment. The 
means is in most general terms the response of the or- 
ganism to its stimuH. Through the senses the world 
acts on the organism, through the muscles the organism 
reacts on the world. The will is the reagent of con- 
sciousness. So far it is evident that without the func- 
tion which will contributes, man would be an automatic 
machine, but not a person. 

The importance of the will in individual and social '^^^ ^"p?5"" 

^ , , tanceofWill. 

life follows from its function, and may be indicated in 
the following ways. In the individual, the will is the 
source of achievement and character; it keeps the in- 
tellect at work or lets it idle ; it keeps passion and un- 
seemly emotions in subjection or lets them overwhelm 
us; it realizes the capacity which nature through 

261 



262 The Psychological Principles of Education 

heredity bestows, or wraps it in a napkin ; it improves 
the opportunity which environment allows, or fatally 
neglects it; it stems the current of adverse circum- 
stance, or drifts indifferently to an alien port. This in 
the individual. 

In society the will is the responsible agent for custom, 
morals, law, constitutions, and history; in the form of 
what Schopenhauer called "the will to live," of what 
Darwin called "the struggle for existence," of what 
common usage calls "the instinct of self-preservation," 
or " nature's first law," the will keeps society in existence. 

Everywhere — in the individual, in society, in nature, 
in reahty as embracing all — that there is movement, 
philosophy would probably find signs of will, regarding 
all temporal changes as fulfilments of an Absolute Will. 
The parts seeking their adjustment to each other within 
the whole, this is the function and importance of will. 

Two Con- From this it is evident that the term will has a larger 

cep^ions o j-g^j^gg ^j^g^^ ^g oftcn, perhaps commonly, think. Indeed, 
it is serviceable for us to distinguish two conceptions of 
will, the broad and. the narrow. Narrowly, and per- 
haps commonly, will means deliberation issuing in 
conscious choice. It is action mediated by ideas. Its 
place in action is, comparatively speaking, sm.all, but 
critical. 

The broad conception of will includes the narrow as 
the highest stage in the development of will. The 
highest response of an organism to its stimuli is in- 
telligent, i.e. it is a deliberate act. But to this the 
broad conception adds the biological and psychological 



The Field of Will 263 

antecedents of conscious choice. To hold ourselves to 
psychological and scientific ground, excluding philo- 
sophical considerations, the broad conception of will is 
consciousness in action. To quote Professor Angell, 
''The whole mind active, this is will." ^ This broad 
sense of the term is urged upon us in view of the unity 
of consciousness, and the consequent inability to find 
in consciousness a distinct faculty of choosing indepen- 
dent of the other forms of conscious action. So our next 
matter, the development of will, will be treated from 
the point of view of the broad, as including the narrow, 
conception. 

The question as to the development of the will TheDevei- 

- -I 1 1 T • . T T 1 opment of 

contemplates the stages, not sharply distmguishable wm. 
from each other, in the growth of human action from 
childhood to maturity. How may we enumerate the 
sources of human action, is our question. A complete 
answer to the question as to how the will develops 
would probably include a discussion of the following 
stages : — 

(i) Spontaneous action, initiated in the young or- 
ganism by the growth and nutrition of the nervous 
system ; (2) reflex action, due to the sensitiveness of the 
nervous system to any stimulation external to itself; 
(3) instinctive action; (4) impulsive action; (5) imita- 
tive action; (6) suggested action; (7) habitual action; 
(8) chosen action. 

In the discussions that follow of these successive 
stages in the genetic account of will, I omit from our 

1 Angell, "Psychology," p. 379. 



264 The Psychological Principles of Education 

treatment the first two types of action, viz. spontaneous 
and reflex action, since these are beyond the reach of 
the teacher's influence. This leaves us, then, as the out- 
line of our following discussions and as representing the 
stages in the development of will the matters of in- 
stinct, impulse, imitation, suggestion, habit, and choice. 
It is important to observe that though we discuss the 
stages in this order as best representing perhaps the 
nature of will, nevertheless often in life other orders 
occur, for example choice before habit. In connection 
with the discussion of each stage of will, we must con- 
sider the corresponding educational training.^ And as 
attention in its two forms, involunta^ry and voluntary, 
covers the whole range of will from instinct to choice, 
it must have a concluding place. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. How Will gets Control of Bodily Action. 

2. Spontaneous Action. 

3. Reflex Action. 

4. Schopenhauer's Theory of Will. 

References on the Field of Will 

Angell, Psychology, ch. XX. 
Bain, Emotions and the Will, pp. 297-314. 
Baldwin, Feeling and Will, ch. XIII. 
Baldwin, Methods and Processes, ch. XIII. 
Fothergill, The Will Power, ch. I. 
James, Briefer Psychology, ch. XXVI. 
Knowlson, The Art of Thinking, ch. VIII. 
Kiilpe, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 423-444. 

^ The chapters on Instinct, Impulse, Imitation, Suggestion, and 
Choice are somewhat enlarged from an article on "The Development 
and Training of the Will," in the School RevieWj October, 1905. 



The Field of Will 265 

Ladd, Outlines of Descriptive Psychology, ch. XVII. 
Schaeffer, Thinking and Learning to Think, ch. XIX. 
Stout, Manual of Psychology, Book IV, ch. X. 
Sully, The Human Mind, Vol. II, pp. 181-195. 

The usual discussions of the education of the will are not so 
comminuted as in the succeeding chapters, so I will append here 
certain 

General References on the Education of the Will 

Adler, Moral Instruction of Children. 

Bain, Emotions and the Will, chs. IX and X. 

Bain, Education as a Science, ch. XII. 

Barnett, Common Sense in Education and Teaching, chs. I and II. 

Compayrd, Psychology Apphed to Education, ch. XIII. 

De Garmo, Herbart, Part I, chs. IV and VII. 

Button, School Management, ch. VII. 

Fothergill, The Will Power, ch. III. 

Fitch, Lectures on Teaching, ch. IV. 

Harris, Psychologic Foundations of Education, ch. XXX. 

James, Talks to Teachers, ch. XV. 

Johonnot, Principles and Practice of Teaching, ch. XIII. 

MacCunn, The Making of Character, Part IV. 

Morgan, Psychology for Teachers, ch. X. 

Spencer, Education, Essay HI. 

Sully, Teacher's Handbook of Psychology, chs. XIX and XX. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE USE OF INSTINCTS IN EDUCATING 

Nothing characterizes the educational theory of the 
last fifteen years more than the demand that the in- 
stincts of children be studied, known, and utilized. 
The feeling is that somehow here are the bases of in- 
dividuality, and unless we begin here, we are not be- 
ginning low enough down. Of course the modern 
initiative in the study of instincts has come from the 
biological sciences. 
Earlier Edu- The contrast between the earlier and later attitudes 
tude toward toward instincts is rather sharp, showing significantly 
Instincts. j-\^Q modern emphasis on the unity of the organic 
creation. Until recently it was thought that instinct 
belonged to the lower animal in distinction from reason 
in man. The consequent educational attitude was 
neglect of the instincts as educational material ; or else 
they were to be rooted out as belonging to the lower 
natures ; or else, indeed, they were to be taught to obey 
ideas as their governors. 
Modern To-day, on the other hand, instincts are held to 

characterize man as truly as they do animals. Man 
probably has all the instincts that the animal has, and 
some of them, like constructiveness and imitation, more 
highly developed. They consequently constitute the 
alpha of the teacher's material. They cannot be 

266 



The Use of Instincts in Educating 267 

neglected, for they would run riot; they cannot be 
rooted out, for they he too deep in the nervous system ; 
they cannot be taught to obey ideas^ as their governors, 
for they are instincts, and unwitting of ideas. Taken 
together, they represent a chaos of conflicting forces 
and impulses. The wild life of the world is caged 
in the cerebro- spinal nervous system of the veriest 
child. The moral problem of elementary educa- 
tion, stated in simplest terms, is the organization 
of these multiform natural and inherited instincts 
and impulses. 

What is an instinctive act ? We wonder at the bird The Nature 
and its nest, the beaver and its dam, the squirrel and 
its winter nuts, the wasp and its eggs, the bee and its 
comb, the ant and its organized society, and the child 
and its toys. All these illustrate instincts. The 
attempt to define an instinct would take some such form 
as this, a useful act without prevision of the end in 
view. Consciousness at first seems to be only a spec- 
tator; at most a subsidiary assistant, finding the 
material upon which the instinct works, but never the 
director at the beginning. 

Physiologically, an instinct is a complex reflex, ix. a 
series of reflexes following each other advantageously. 
It is an inherited nervous mechanism, a kind of trans- 
mitted ancestral habit. 

Into the fascinating biological problem of the origin 
of instincts we cannot go, as beside our present prac- 
tical purpose. The student finds here great names 
heading conflicting theories, Darwin for "natural selec- 



268 The Psychological Principles of Education 

tion," Wundt for "lapsed intelligence," and Baldwin 
for "organic selection." 

ThePrinci- But our practical question is, how must the teacher 

eating the deal with instincts in pupils? with these inherited 

Instincts. accumulations of all the vast life of the past ? Neither 

neglect, nor oppress, nor extirpate, nor instruct; but 

direct. Direct their expression toward legitimate 

objects. 

Application Xo apply this principle to some of the commoner and 

ofthisPrin- ^^ ^ . .^ . ^1 ., , 

cipietoCer- morc representative mstmcts. Cnildren are naturally 
tain Instincts, constructive? Then provide courses in manual train- 
ing and domestic science. Children are full of play? 
Then provide ample recesses and good games, and 
recognize play as a legitimate educator and not as a 
necessary waste of time. Children are acquisitive? 
Then provide shelves for natural history specimens, 
encourage collections of stamps, pictures, flowers, etc. 
Children obey the group or gang impulse? Then let 
home and school unite in organizing proper bands and 
clubs. Children have a curiosity surpassing that of 
any creature? Then answer patiently their question 
"Why?" as far as they are able to comprehend, and 
suggest further related questions to engage and develop 
their interest. Children have primitive fears ? Arouse 
them, not by hobgoblin stories, but make the unavoid- 
able consequences of wrong-doing such as justly to 
excite their fear. Children so easily fly into a passion ? 
When the fury is past, show the boy some wrong in- 
flicted upon the innocent, and let his anger kindle as a 
flame to right it. Children are secretive? Agree with 



The Use of Instincts in Educating 269 

them to keep all evil reports about another. Children 
are so emulous of each other ? Confront each one with 
his own weak past self to excel. They are envious of 
another's good fortune? Point to some man of good 
character as having the best treasure and secure hero- 
worship. And so on through the list. Study the in- 
stincts of children; catch them in the act, and direct 
them toward a legitimate object. To do so skilfully 
is actually to fashion the good will. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Origin of Instincts. 

2. Sources of Variation in Instinctive Action. 

3. A List of the Human Instincts. 

References on Instinct 

Angell, Psychology, chs. XV and XVI. 

Baldwin, Story of the Mind, ch. III. 

Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretation, pp. 185-195. 

James, Briefer Psychology, ch. XXV. 

Kirkpatrick, Fundamentals of Child Study, chs. IV, VI, VII, 

IX-XIII. 
Lewes, Physical Basis of the Mind, pp. 463-475. 
Morgan, Habit and Instinct, chs. II, VI, IX, X. 
Morgan, Animal Life and Intelligence, ch. XL 
Oppenheim, Mental Growth and Control, ch. V. 
Royce, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 274-285, 
Spencer, Psychology, Part IV, ch. V. 
Thorndike, Elements of Psychology, pp. 187-191. 
Wundt, Human and Animal Psychology, pp. 388-406. 
Ziehen, Introduction to the Study of Physiological Psychology, 

ch. XIII. 



CHAPTER XXIII 



TRAINING THE IMPULSES 



The Nature 
of Impulsive 
Acts. 



Advance 
over Instinct. 



By an impulsive act we mean one performed at the 
mere thought of it, ''on the spur of the moment," as 
we say. " I did it without thinking," the pupils some- 
times say self-excusingly. There is a type of impulsive 
individual, with whom to think is to act. A certain 
degree of impulsiveness, or ideas leading immediately 
into action, characterizes child Hfe. Bain's phrase is 
ideo-motor action; no considerable interval elapses 
between the mental state and the physical act. To 
think the word is to speak it, to see the attractive object 
is to get it, to hear a new sound is to seek its origin, to 
think of stepping over a certain block on the pavement 
is to do so, to wonder if the electric light is turned 
off is to go and see, to want water is to rise and get it, 
and so on. 

The advance here over instinctive action is tre- 
mendous; there consciousness at most was a helpful 
spectator of hereditary responses to physical stimuK; 
here consciousness is the immediate cause of action. 
There the response is typical and racial and conserva- 
tive; here it is novel, individual, and progressive. 
There action was uniform; here it is multiform. In 
impulsive action the basis is laid for addition to the an- 
cestral capital. The individual comes into prominence. 

270 



Training the Impulses 271 

The great danger in impulsive action is that the wrong Bad 
thing is thought of and done. This cannot be alto- "™^" ^^^' 
gether avoided. The only thing to do is for teacher and 
pupil to recognize such deeds as wrong, to associate 
pain in some way with the wrong deed, and trust 
inhibition through this association to prevent a recur- 
rence. Illustrations of such impulses will occur to you : 
the impulse to trip up a pupil passing by, to pull the 
ear of the boy in front, to whistle in school, to whisper 
to the neighbor, to step on the match on the floor ; in 
general, to do thoughtlessly everything that pops into 
consciousness. 

xA.lso the right thing is sometimes done impulsively. Good 
The good thing to eat is shared, the little fellow is pro- ^ 
tected from his bulHes, a fellow-pupil is helped in a 
difficulty, spontaneous confession of wrong-doing is 
made, admiration at another's success is expressed, 
and the like. The good thing impulsively done is to 
be noted by the teacher and commended. An associa- 
tion of pleasure with the good deed is to be formed, and 
this association trusted to repeat the deed. 

All conscious action passes through the impulsive The 

. , . _n 1 Educational 

stage, some action never gets beyond it. 1 he general Principle, 
principle of training here is to foster the good impulses 
through desirable and pleasurable consequences, and 
to checkmate the bad impulses through undesirable 
and painful consequences, and be consistent through- 
out in so doing. In this early stage of impulsive action 
our dependence is almost solely on the pleasurable or 
painful fringes which experience associates with ideas 
of action. The idea of a wrong deed whose fringe 



272 The Psychological Principles of Education 

suggests pain will hardly lead to action ; of a right deed 
whose fringe suggests pleasure will probably lead to 
action. The ideal is to eliminate the impulsive wrong 
deeds, and fix the impulsive rights deeds. 

Description The impulsivencss which all children possess to some 
cipitateWiii. degree some children possess to an abnormal degree. 
The impulsive child beyond the average, or beyond the 
period of mere impulsiveness, requires special descrip- 
tion and treatment. He is quickly responsive to all 
external influences, physical or personal, acting un- 
hesitatingly, and is easily led astray. The painful 
fringes experience has gathered , about certain ideas 
are not effective in preventing action. Physiologically 
expressed, there is defective inhibition in the nervous 
system. He is sometimes described as being "quick 
on trigger," as "jumping at conclusions." His acts 
are wanton, without provocation. His nervous system 
sets quickly in the direction of motor discharge. The 
channels from cerebrum to muscles are fixed and deep. 
He is motor in type partly by inheritance, and partly 
perhaps also by training. 

As he passes into the upper grammar grades and the 
high school, he lords it over his fellows, is showy in his 
action, is immodest beyond his years, resourceful in 
emergencies, and doesn't know the virtue of patience. 
He is motor because his mind is filled with what Bald- 
win calls "the twitchings, tensions, contractions, and 
expansions of the activities of the muscular system.' 
He thinks of movements rather than sights and sounds. 
His three characteristic mental traits are fluid i 



Training the Impulses 273 

attention, distinctions difficult to make and to remem- 
ber, and hasty generalizations. 

If these tendencies are not corrected in the secondary 
school, and the youth comes to college, it is said of him 
that he has not learned how to study, how to apply him- 
self, how to assimilate. He may be ready and willing 
and receptive, but is incapable of retaining, because his 
channels of reaction are worn smooth. He can mouth 
principles like an old man, but is dumfounded before 
facts. He is familiar with authority, but knows little 
of evidence ; he can memorize and imitate, but cannot 
think and originate. 

What shall be the training of the preternaturally }1^ . . 
impulsive child? To begin with, he does not need the 
kindergarten as at present conducted. Its emphasis 
on expression accentuates, rather than checks, his 
already defective inhibition. The present kinder- 
garten is best for the sensory, quiet, unexpressive child. 

Neither can the precipitate child be controlled directly 
by command, threats, or the rod. Command a restless 
child to sit still, and within, if not without, you make 
him tenfold more a child of restlessness than before; 
you fix his attention on the very thing he is to avoid. 
The negative and the positive of a picture still represent 
the same picture to the mind. So a negative command 
to the impulsive child holds before him the very picture > 

he is commanded not to look upon. Ideas do have 
motor impulses. 

The secret is rather to get the idea of a compHcated 
act in his mind. This alone will delay his reactive 
machinery. If he marks his desk, get him to draw a 



274 The Psychological Principles of Education 

map, not as a punishment, but to direct his penchant 
into more difficult tasks, requiring hesitation and pa- 
tience. If he cuts his initials on his seat, engage him 
in wood carving. Use his latent interests, but in novel 
and difficult situations requiring care and forethought. 
He should be kept with scholars slightly more advanced 
than himself. No assistance should be rendered him 
until the good fruits of discouragement are ripe. Assign 
him usually the secondary places in sports and games. 
In a case of real leadership, however, say an exploring 
party, give the place to him, where either responsibihty 
may check, or failure teach. Analyze the mistakes 
made, showing their causes, and the advantages of 
forethought. Recognize also fully the motor pupil's 
merit, — quickness and promptness. 

The studies of such a pupil that should be stressed 
are those furnishing no immediate opportunity for 
action, but requiring thought, like mathematics and 
grammar; those that cultivate careful observation and 
generalization, the making of accurate discriminations, 
and that demand attention, like experimental physics 
and chemistry. Descriptive botany, history, and ge- 
ography should be held in abeyance to observational 
studies, unless indeed these be studied observationally. 
Arithmetic and geometry are better than algebra, em- 
pirical psychology or pohtical economy than deductive 
logic. Drawing from life or models is good employment 
for the hands, also the use of neighboring machine 
shops. In general, this pupil needs the inductive 
studies, the pursuit of the general from the particular. 
How prevalent the tendency among pupils throughout 



Training the Impulses 275 

school and college careers to approach facts from the 
point of view of their likeness, merging them all to- 
gether in a general description ! Their training, above 
all, should be observation and report on single facts. 
These are the brakes on the wheels of their memory 
processes. 

The precipitate will unassisted may pass into the 
pathological condition of uncontrollable impulses, the 
so-called monomanias, and insistent ideas. 

This, then, is the precipitate type of will and how we Description 
1 1 . 1 . -r. Ml 11 of the Ob- 

may deal with it. But some one will say, my problem structed v^iiL 

is not with the active, but with the passive, child, not 

with the pupil having too much will, but too Httle, — 

the hesitant, backward, shrinking, timid child. His 

will seems to be obstructed, his inhibition is excessive, 

his ideas are deficient in impulsive character. 

This type is indeed the other characteristic variation 
from the normal. We have the normal impulsive will, 
the abnormal precipitate will, and the abnormal ob- 
structed will. If we call the child with the precipitate 
will the motor type, we may call the child with the 
obstructed will the sensory type. 

How shall we describe the sensory type of child? 
He is passive, inert, contemplative, learning new 
movements slowly, and not quick at taking a hint. 
Often he gets the unearned reputation from uncom- 
prehending teachers of being dull. He grieves in 
quiet, is undemonstrative, timid, and learns from a 
few experiences. 

The sensory type is more difficult to assist than the 



276 The Psychological Principles of Education 

motor. This child is not the open book his brother is. 
He puzzles us, because he does not reveal himself in 
speech or action. What he has learned or missed is 
difficult to determine. His will may be obstructed 
because of too many ideas that mutually inhibit each 
other, — the Hamlet type ; or deficient impulsiveness in 
the single idea that he has, — abulia. How many of 
us have not felt "the agony of starting," a temporary 
impotency before a paper to be written or a letter to 
be answered? 
Its Training. The great principle in dealing with the obstructed 
will is in some way to secure expression, to open the 
flood-gates of nervous energy, to connect mental states 
vdth physical reactions, to make action easy. The 
kindergarten is here indispensable. If it had been 
framed for the obstructed will, it could not have 
been better. It teaches the child ease of move- 
ment, self-activity, self-confidence, and familiarity with 
others. 

The teacher must make no mistake with the sensory 
type, for mistakes here do not reveal themselves, but 
only increase the secretiveness you would remove. First 
wait for some positive indication of what the real situa- 
tion is, — understand your child. Then cultivate ap-^ 
propriately self-expression, by letting him recite a great 
deal, repeat memorized verses ; encouraging him to ask 
questions; giving him the active parts in games, the 
speaking parts in plays ; try him as leader of a tramping 
party ; provide in season an open-air life ; especially be 
kind in correcting his mistakes. If left to himself, the 
sensory child with obstructed will is likely to develop 



Training the Impulses 277 

into idiosyncrasy and eccentricity; if brought out of 
himself, the variation may change to genius. 

It is probably true that the motor type, whose ex- 
treme is precipitate action, predominates with girls, 
while the sensory type, whose extreme is obstructed 
action, characterizes boys; hence the common ob- 
servation that girls seem brighter than boys. It means 
they are more alert, responsive, ready, quick ; not that 
they have greater mental power, concentration, or con- 
structiveness. In assigned tasks of memory they show 
better ; in matters requiring patient and profound think- 
ing, the boys are better. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Nature of Impulse. 

2. Insistent Ideas. 

3. Monomanias. 

4. Abulia. 

References on Impulses 

Angell, Psychology, ch. XVII. 

Baldwin, Story of the Mind, ch. VIII. 

James, Briefer Psychology, pp. 435-442. 

Search, An Ideal School, ch. VIII. 

Stout, Manual of Psychology, pp. 266-268. 

Thomdike, Elements of Psychology, pp. 85-87. 

Thorndike, Educational Psychology, ch. XII. 



r 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE PLACE OF IMITATION IN EDUCATION 

Imitation is an instinct ; suggestion is an impulse. 
The discussion of these two, therefore, in this and the 
following chapter, but carries forward in particular and 
notable ways the two preceding stages. Imitation and 
suggestion shade imperceptibly into each other, radical 
distinctions between them being impossible to main- 
tain. Suggestion has the larger connotation, imitation 
being due to a particular kind of suggestive influence, 
viz. "suggestibility to models and copies of all sorts." ^ 
We take the term of smaller scope first. 
The Nature By imitation we mean the tendency to repeat the 
thought or action of another. Its influence is bound 
up with the social order and permeates all our conduct. 
MacCunn describes imitation as ''one of the earliest, | 
deepest, and most tenacious of human instincts." ^ 
And concerning its almost universal influence Professor 
Thorndike writes: "Among the most numerous and J 
the most important causes of the ideas producing action | 
in a human being are the acts of other human beings. I 
Manners, accent, the usages of language, style in dress 
and appearance, — in a word, the minor phases of 

^Baldwin, "Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology," article, 
" Suggestion." 

* MacCunn, "The Making of Character," p. 128. 

278 



• 



The Place of Imitation in Education 279 

human behavior, — are guided almost exclusively by- 
them. They also control the morals, business habits, 
and poHtical action of many men on many occasions. 
As the physical environment decides in large measure 
what things a man shall see and hear, so the social 
environment decides in large measure what he shall 
do and feel." ^ 

Coming closer to the subject of imitation, we may Large and 
distinguish a large and a limited sense of the term. In Meanings. 
a large sense imitation is synonymous with learning, 
and accounts for all the content of civilization except 
that small but weighty fraction added by invention. 
In the limited sense of the term, it means the influence 
of personal example, and in this sense only is its dis- 
cussion of practical educational moment, though such 
discussion with difhculty avoids platitudes. 

What models do children of younger or older srrowth ^^^ Models 

. . ^ ^^r 11 . . , Children 

imitate? We cannot answer that they imitate the imitate, 
good and not the bad. Rather their unrefiective 
deeds are almost indifferent to this distinction. But 
the interesting deeds, the fascinating, the compelling; 
even the inherently uninteresting deeds of interesting 
people; the deeds of a supposed superior; and the 
deeds of the heroes of all times, — all these catch their 
attention, appeal to native interests, solicit action. The 
children imitate the captivating bad fellow, the play- 
ground leader, their parents, the teachers they Kke, 
and the characters in their favorite stories. They do 
not usually imitate familiar, commonplace, uninterest- 
1 Thorndike, "Elements of Psychology," p. 288. 



"^ 



28o The Psychological Principles of Education 

ing deeds, the deeds of uninteresting people, the deeds 
of a supposed inferior, and the described virtues. All 
these latter fail to catch the attention, to reach the 
interest, or to enlist the imagination of children. De- 
scribe a virtue, like courage, and children get 
words; narrate a virtue, as in the story of David, and 
children get images and ideas. The striking person- 
alities about the child, and the heroes of story, 
biography, and history, — these make the virtues 
imitable to children, these are the examples that 
influence. 



The Influ- 
ence of 
Example. 

Stimulus. 



Standard. 



In v^hat precisely consists the justly celebrated in- 
fluence of example ? The deed of another that has the 
quality of suggestiveness for us does four things, viz. 
(i) it stimulates us to do likewise. There is an impulse 
to perform an action which we see another perform. 
Actions speak louder than words because they are 
concrete, vivid, and sharp-cut, thus giving attention 
something upon which to fasten. Example is superior 
to precept, practising is better than preaching, because 
a deed is more suggestive than a word, — it inhibits 
any idea of the act's impossibility, often even of its 
undesirability. 

(2) Example provides us with a standard by which 
we pass judgments on conduct. Smoking must be all 
right for me, says the young fellow, for all the big 
boys smoke, and even such and such a man also. The 
superiority of an example to a principle as a standard 
of moral judgment consists in its clearness, its cer- 
tainty, its unambiguity, whereas a principle always has 



The Place of Imitation in Education 281 

to be applied, thereby opening the door to casuis- 
try. Of course a remote example faces the same 
difficulty. 

(3) Examples raise or lower our ideals of living, influence on 
they fill our minds with a certain pattern of life. 

Young minds are inevitably contaminated by a 
permanent evil social environment, as they are 
inevitably purified by constantly breathing a moral 
atmosphere. 

(4) Examples reveal to us our own nature. Hu- Revelation, 
manity is capable of that; I am a man. We shudder 

at crime, for it is not far from us; we thrill at self- 
sacrifice, for it too is within our reach. Not a school, 
perhaps, in which during the year some character does 
not flash forth to shame the face of evil and to make 
shine the face of goodness. 

Thinking of these influences of example in our social Application 
order, we may say, if examples teach us nothing through 
imitation, we are geniuses or defectives. For us as 
practical teachers these considerations demand that we 
be as genuinely interesting and fascinating personalities 
to pupils as we can be ; that our deeds be worthy their 
imitation; that our sense of responsible living be 
sharpened, through recognizing our conduct as a con- 
tagion; and this last particularly, that through story, 
biography, fiction, and history, we «tore young minds 
with vivid images of heroic characters. To quote 
MacCunn again, ''The best index expurgatorius is not 
to be found in a catalogue of books not to be read. 
Contrariwise, it is the carefully fostered love of good 
fiction that will in the long run do tenfold more to oust 



282 The Psychological Principles of Education 

the tales of scandal, frivolity, and crime than a thousand 
repressive 'Thou-shalt-nots.' " ^ 



The Limita- 
tions of 
Example. 



Aping. 



Particularity. 



Demands 
Imagination 



and 
Capacity. 



But personal examples alone are not adequate to the 
fashioning of will ; they have their limitations as springs 
of action and guides of conduct. To emphasize these 
limitations of example in the making of character is 
perhaps the most pertinent point to-day in the dis- 
cussion of imitation. We must be brought up almost 
entirely on example, but we can never become persons 
by proxy. 

Four limitations to the influence of example appear, 
(i) The influence of example is most valuable, not when 
it is literally and externally imitated, but when its spirit 
is caught and reproduced in the new setting. This 
adds to character independence, originality, genuine- 
ness, sincerity, personality. Otherwise, imitating is 
aping. 

(2) Any example is particular in place and time; 
it is individual and concrete. The example therefore is 
not universal; it is not once for all, as such. The 
great demand that an example makes upon us is not 
that it be faithfully copied, but that it be understood, 
assimilated, appropriated. 

(3) This leads us to note that the best utilization 
of example presupposes a developed imagination, per- 
mitting us to put ourselves in the place of the exemplar. 
Without this, we may do what he did, we cannot do as 
he did. 

And (4), in the words of Professor Stout^ " Imitation 
* MacCunn, op. ciL, p. 127, 



The Place of Imitation in Education 283 

may develop and improve a power which already exists, 
but it cannot create it." ^ We can become by imitation 
only what we already are by capacity. The example 
must presuppose the power in us to respond to it. It 
is no substitute for individuality. We may look to 
example for many beneficent influences, but it can- 
not save us from the duty and the danger of being 
ourselves. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. Unconscious and Conscious Imitation. 

2. Influence of Imitation on Mental Development, 

3. Imitation and Originality. 

4. Imitation in Teaching English Composition and Art. 

5. Tarde's Laws of Imitation. 

References on Imitation 

Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretations, ch. III. 
Calkins, Introduction to Psychology, pp. 339-347. 
Griggs, Moral Education, ch. XVIII. 
Judd, Genetic Psychology for Teachers, pp. 125-127. 
MacCunn, The Making of Character, ch. X. 
Morgan, Habit and Instinct, ch. VIII. 
Royce, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 274-285. 
Stout, Manual of Psychology, Book III, ch. II. 
Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, ch. XI. 
Sully, Teacher's Handbook of Psychology, pp. 517-520. 
Thorndike, Human Nature Club, ch. XIV. 

^ Stout, "Manual of Psychology," p. 274. 



CHAPTER XXV 

EDUCATING BY SUGGESTION 

The one general principle for securing a conscious 
act is, arouse the mental state that means that act. 
Sometimes it is desirable to secure the act through 
arousing the mental state that means it without arous- 
ing any inhibiting mental state that would delay, or 
even prevent, the act in question. This method of 
securing action is by suggestion. The principle works 
both when we intend and when we do not intend 
specific actions. Teachers give suggestions uncon- 
sciously as well as consciously. 
The Nature Suggestion is the tendency of consciousness to believe 
tion. in and act on any given idea. Consciousness will both 

believe in and act on any given idea that is uninhibited 
by another idea, as is illustrated in both waking and 
hypnotic suggestion. By suggestion, customs, fashions, 
and fads pass through a school like wind-made waves 
over a grainfield. By suggestion the crowd follows the 
leader. By suggestion the physician renews the faith 
of his patient in his recovery, and the individual, 
timid and nervous before some trial, establishes his 
self-confidence through self-suggestions of a successful 
issue. By suggestion we arouse an idea in our pupil's 
mind, leading to the desired act, without arousing con- 
flicting ideas. 

284 



1 



Educating by Suggestion 285 

Individuals differ widely in suggestibility, some be- '^^^ ^'^^^ of 

T • 1 . 11 1 . . Suggestion 

lieving and acting on most they near, others rejecting m Educat- 
any foreign suggestion whatsoever. But of practically ^"^" 
all children it is true that they are characteristically 
responsive to suggestions. Indeed, when we speak of 
the impressionable age, this means the suggestible age. 

In a large sense of the word, suggestion is the com- 
prehensive means of educating. In the words of Dr. 
Otto Stoll, "To educate a human being aright means, 
on the one hand, to let the suggestions influence him that 
are suited to his individuality in order to make him a 
spiritually sound, ethically good, happy being ; and on 
the other hand to remove from him, or paralyze by con- 
trary suggestions, all those suggestions that threaten his 
spiritual health, destroy his character, and kill his 
vitality, which he needs even more to-day when the 
struggle for existence is carried on with greater bitter- 
ness than in the times of easier modes of living." ^ 

If several ideas leading to different acts are in con- 
sciousness, we have, not suggestion, but deliberation, 
with several motives present, and choice. Now the 
field in education for the conscious use of suggestion 
seems to be twofold, viz. (i) where the pupil could not 
rightly estimate the motives in deliberation, and (2) 
where it is important that he should do the right thing, 
but not important that he should be able to give a 
reason for so doing. It is evident that young children 
belong to both these types; they can neither weigh 
motives, nor is it important as yet that they should 

^ "Suggestion und Hypnotismus," second edition, Leipzig, 1904, 
pp. 708-709. 



286 The Psychological Principles of Education 

learn to do so. The limit to the use of the principle 
of suggestion is where the act should be reflected upon, 
the cost should be counted, before the deed is done. 
As Thorndike observes, ''Suggestion as a method of 
control is risky in cases where training in judgment and 
choice is one chief benefit of the act." ^ 



The Art of 
Suggesting. 

Indirect. 



Positive. 



The art of giving suggestions to children consists in 
observing two things, that they should be indirect and 
positive. The most effective suggestions are indirect. 
The really dangerous vice is that which by indirection 
and suggestiveness lets loose the imagination, while the 
open flaunting vice that appeals to the sensations is re- 
pulsive. Likewise the good that is but hinted or sug- 
gested is more attractive than that which is required. 
Direct commands are less obeyed, or, at least, less 
spontaneously obeyed; they subject the child's will. 
An indirect suggestion liberates the child's will, and 
the quality of exuberance characterizes his responsive 
action. 

The second thing to observe is that the most effective 
suggestions are positive ; effective, that is, in getting the 
desired reaction in a desirable way. The positive sug- 
gestion secures the right act in the right way. A 
negative suggestion, that is, the suggestion not to do a 
certain thing, fills the child's mind with the idea of the 
very act he is told not to do, and so by suggestion tends 
to secure the undesired act. A foolish old story with 
several characteristic variations relates how a physician 
on a call warned his patient not to put beans up his 
^ "Elements of Psychology," New York, 1905, p. 387, 



i 



Educating by Suggestion 287 

nose, only to find on his next visit that the patient had 
not heeded his negative suggestion. A positive sug- 
gestion excludes the possibihty even of thinking of the 
forbidden thing. Suggestions of what to do, rather 
than what not to do, work best with young minds. 

From the attractiveness of the forbidden fruit in Danger of 

Negative 

Eden down to the events of any modern nursery, human Suggestions. 
nature reveals a curious bent toward what it is not per- 
mitted to have. Its assertiveness seems to appear just 
at the point of repression. Forbid one young person 
the company of another, and straightway that other 
becomes an essential to life's happiness. Now, this 
weakness in human nature is often preyed upon by 
teachers and parents when they get children to do what 
they want them to do by forbidding them those very 
things. The child that won't drink its milk is told he 
cannot have any more, and at once he calls for it ; the 
child that doesn't want to go to school to-day is told he 
must stay at home, and at once he insists on going ; and 
so on. Now while this insincere use of a negative sug- 
gestion is very effective in getting the deserved thing 
done, it is not done in the desirable way. Under such 
treatment a child becomes an habitual cross-patch, 
to whom everything permitted is distasteful, and every- 
thing forbidden is delightful. Negative suggestions to 
secure what is wanted from children in the way of con- 
duct should never be used at all ; negative suggestions 
to prevent what is not wanted should be followed 
always with a positive suggestion to secure what is 
wanted. Forbid the evil as little as possible; fill 
consciousness with the good as much as possible. 



288 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Stoll's Enu- 
meration of 
Detrimental 
Suggestions. 



Painful. 



Contrary. 



In the work above cited, Dr. Stoll enumerates three 
kinds of detrimental suggestions children undergo in 
home and school alike, suggestions given often con- 
sciously on the part of parents and teachers, but with- 
out full consciousness of their disastrous consequences. 
In noting these suggestions it is to be remembered that 
they are probably more characteristic of the German 
schools which Dr. Stoll has primarily in mind than of 
our American schools, though we also feel their blight- 
ing presence. 

These are: (i) suggestions of a painful nature, 
physical and mental, such as the constant dread of 
physical punishment, rough mistreatment, mortify- 
ing exposure before school companions, shutting up 
children in dark rooms as a punishment, and suggestions 
of frightful supernatural beings. All these pervert the 
child's mental outlook on the world and take the soul 
of joy out of its life. 

Stoll mentions (2) contrary suggestions, by which 
he means the use of a form or tone of speech not suited 
to the individual child's disposition, as habitual intimi- 
dation, or the inducing of paralyzing fear. Children so 
treated "are not able to obey a sharp and harshly 
uttered command to put on a friendly countenance, or 
to shake hands with a stranger, or to make a circum- 
stantial confession, or even to beg the required pardon 
in penitent form." Then they get the reputation of 
being obdurate, and no scolding, nor low marks, nor 
bodily castigation, seem sufficient to break this 
^^maleficium taciturnitas.^^ The consequence of such 
ill-treatment is that in time these children become really 



Educating by Suggestion 289 

insolent, taking pride in suffering the severest penalty, 
rather than obeying such stern exactions. 

''A single word of love or warm-hearted sympathy in 
the right way would have broken the spell, without which 
they are lost, for no property of young souls is more 
sensitive than the feeling of justice, and no need more 
intensive than that of love. When both are lacking, 
the soul becomes dry and hard. If they do not lose 
their power of psychical resistance, such children in 
later life join the crowded ranks of the dissatisfied, with 
whom mutiny against the established order has become 
instinctive. Natures of a weaker organization, how- 
ever, become timid, solitary, melancholy, upon the 
bloom of whose young life the frost has fallen, who can 
never have genuine joy in anything again, for nothing 
can give them back their spirit." 

And (3) Dr. Stoll mentions suggestions of over- Exciting, 
excitement. Under this prejudicial influence fall espe- 
cially lively, energetic, industrious, and conscientious 
children, and such as are tormented by a vain and 
overdriven ambition. Incitements to such overexer- 
tion are excessive praise before strangers, constant 
reference to the high grades of other children, and the 
pressure of examinations. The nervous tension of the 
school is too high, in consequence of which the health 
of both body and mind suffers. 

So far the injurious suggestions as described by Dr. 
Stoll. It will encourage us as teachers in the delicate 
art of shaping conduct aright through suggestion to 
remember that the individual life-history of many a 
man, perhaps of some of us, is witness to the influence 
u 



290 The Psychological Principles of Education 

of some apparently incidental suggestion dropped into 
the receptive youthful mind by a loving, serious, dis- 
cerning teacher. 

Hypnotism jn this connection I v^^ill briefly refer to the work of 
tion. Dr. Quackenbos^ of New York, who has been successful 

in treating, among others, deficient pupils by post- 
hypnotic suggestions. Those in whom habit has 
destroyed will-power seem to need the stimulus of 
another will for their self-recovery through right action. 
The cases that have shown themselves amenable to 
such treatment include alcoholism, social vice, cigarettes, 
drug habits, kleptomania, bad temper, cruelty, habitual 
falsehood, and loss of interest in study and books. 
The use of both waking and hypnotic suggestion by 
modem reputable physicians in dealing with sick 
patients dignifies this method as of possible service to 
the teacher in dealing with sick minds. It is a resource, 
however, to be used with greatest caution. A boy kept 
from weakness or crime through post-hypnotic sug- 
gestion may be formally correct in conduct, but the 
incentive is not a moral one; it is a psychic incentive 
of a non-moral quality. It is evident that such treat- 
ment is lasting only in case a moral motive is implanted 
to prevent relapses. The value of such treatment 
consists in its building up the nervous system enough 
to permit self-control in those cases where self-control 
is really desired. Only a deficient person is a fit sub- 
ject for hypnotic treatment by suggestion. Neither 
ministers before their audiences in a revival nor teachers 

^ "Hypnotism in Mental and Moral Culture." 



Educating by Suggestion 291 

before their pupils can afford to use the art of suggestion 
for results. In the valid use of suggestion with normal 
persons in church and school the line is to be drawn 
exactly at that point where the individuality of the 
person is no longer his own, but has become another's. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Characteristics of a Crowd. 

2. Permissible Uses of Hypnotism in Education. 

3. The Psychology of Suggestion and Hypnotism. 

4. An Analysis of a "Magnetic Personahty." 

References on Educating by Suggestion 

Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order, ch. II. 

Dill, Psychology of Advertising, IV. 

James, Principles of Psychology, ch. XXVII. 

Mason, Hypnotism and Suggestion, ch. IV. 

Oppenheim, Mental Growth and Control, ch. VIII. 

Stoll, Suggestion und Hypnotismus, pp. 708-715. 

Stout, Manual of Psychology, pp. 269-275. 

Stratton, Experimental Psychology and Culture, ch. XI. 



CHAPTER XXVI 



FORMING HABITS 



The Univer- 
sality of 
Habit. 



Tlie Laws of 
Nature. 



We are now on most familiar ground. Everybody 
knows about habits practically, and almost everybody 
nowadays knows also something about the modern 
physiological explanations of habits. President Faunce 
says Professor James's chapter on habit has been 
preached from a thousand pulpits. There is no 
scientific subject that will so preach itself as habit, and 
it needs to do so to every new generation afresh. The 
purpose of this chapter is to try to say again those 
things concerning habit which we doubtless already 
know, but of which, like the ten words of Moses, we 
cannot neglect to remind ourselves. 

Where can habit be found? Thanks to modern 
scientific thought about the laws of nature, the answer 
is that habit can be found everywhere. The so-called 
laws of nature are really her habits of behavior that 
have grown with her growth. What were the laws of 
falling bodies before there were any bodies yet con- 
densed from the primitive nebulous mass ? What were 
the laws of freezing mixtures when the universe of 
matter was molten hquid? Such questions suggest 
that the very laws of nature have themselves developed 
as nature has developed, and represent in the large 
man's formulation of nature's habits of action. 

292 



Forming Habits 293 

Coming closer to man, and thinking of the actions The instincts 
of lower animals, it is usual to say that with them 
instincts rule. But the biological sciences of to-day- 
are teaching us to think of instincts as really inherited 
ancestral habits. They wish us to remember, however, 
that the ancestral habits were not acquired in one 
generation, but probably represent the selection of 
fortunate variations through manifold generations. As 
they say, instinct is an inherited congenital, not ac- 
quired, habit. 

In the life of man the presence of habit is most in Man. 
conspicuous of all. According to an old meaning of 
the term, even his clothes are his habits, and by a 
figure of speech it still might be said that his habits 
are the garments of his soul. And then, too, he has his Habits of 
habits of mind, though he does not always recognize 
them. They are of two kinds, individual and pro- 
fessional. As an individual each man is characterized 
by his own personal outlook on hfe, differentiating him 
in feeling, thought, and temperament from all others 
of his kind. The habit of mind of the individual is 
particularly the category, whether static, dynamic, or 
organic, with which his customary thinking is done. 
The philosophical Dr. Davidson used to say in his 
educational writings that education is conscious world- 
building, which certainly means in part that man lives 
in his own consciousness somewhat as he does in his 
own dwelling, from which he looks out upon the passing 
show. 

And man also has professional habits of mind. 
They can already be observed in simple form settling 



294 The Psychological Principles of Education 

down upon the young man of about twenty-five who 
has just completed his course in law, medicine, theology, 
or the graduate school. Little tricks of the trade, 
mannerisms of the profession, marks of whatsoever 
cloth it may be, words of his school of thinkers, senti- 
ments from his bias in life, are already beginning to 
show that the professional habit of mind is making 
him its own. With the older ones, of course, it is simply 
the same story written in larger characters. 
Habits of It hardly needs to be said that the real place in a 

man's life where we touch the force of habit is in his 
deeds. Here the word habit has most of its associa- 
tions, here we find habit as a form of will, a crystallized 
form, and here we must now particularly observe its 
nature. 

The Nature The tendency to repeat, this is omnipresent in 

of Habit. ^ •' ^ . , , ^ 

nature and man. It is the tendency to repeat that 
gives laws to nature, instincts to animals, and habits 
of mind and action to man. It is a tendency 
as truly characteristic of the inanimate as animate 
world, if we may make a distinction odious to the 
hylozoists of all ages. A piece of paper once folded 
folds more easily in the same place the second time ; a 
gate once swung upon its rusty hinges swings more 
easily the second time; the key once turned in its un- 
used lock turns more easily the next time; the tailor 
in vain removes the old wrinkles from the coat-sleeve; 
the shoes once worn begin to show their creases, — all 
this is as true as that the deeds of life seam and scar 
the faces of youth, and write out there in bold outlines 



Forming Habits 295 

during the years that character which the artist so 
loves to spread upon his canvas. Thus, to begin with, 
we may say that the nature of habit is the tendency to 
repeat. 

So universal a tendency and so potent a force in Proverbs, 
shaping human action has not escaped the wisdom of 
the race as expressed in its proverbs. Despise not a 
proverb. Though usually both one-sided and ex- 
aggerated, it enwraps a truth, a portion of the truth, a 
little epitome of racial experience. Every child must be 
nourished afresh on the old maxims: " Habit is second 
nature;" "As the twig is bent the tree is inclined;" 
" The child is father of the man ; " " Man is a bundle of 
habits;" "As the tree falls so shall it lie;" and all the 
rest of the gnomic Hst gathered about the theme of habit. 

Why can a habit be formed? Why is there a ten- TheExpia- 

- ^ ,_- . . , 1 • 1 • nation of 

dency to repeat? Inis is the technical question as to Habit, 
the explanation of habit, and following the lead of 
psychology, all whose explanations are physiological, 
we must find our answer in the character of the nervous 
system in man. An illustration will help us here. 
Familiar things like newly laid concrete or the putty 
freshly smoothed against the window pane are pliable 
enough to receive impressions, even one's own initials, 
and hard enough to keep them. Water would receive 
but not keep them, marble would keep but with diffi- 
culty receive them. Now the nervous system of a 
man, to compare a delicate and complex thing with a 
coarse and simple thing, is like the concrete or the 
putty in one respect; it has plasticity, as the physi- Plasticity. 



296 The Psychological Principles of Education 

ologists say. As Mr. Frank Cramer has expressed it, 
" The brain and spinal cord are plastic enough to 
receive impressions and rigid enough to retain them." * 
Brain Paths. js^q-^^ ^j^g hypothesis that would explain habit physi- 
ologically is that every deed once done leaves its least 
unimaginable trace or path in the plastic nervous 
substance where the nervous energy ran through to 
the muscle whose contraction caused the action. This 
path once traced, Hke a mark in the putty or a new 
wagon road through a tangle of woods, is more easily 
followed the second time; the brain path is more 
pervious to later discharges of nervous energy; lines 
of least resistance are estabhshed; and the nervous 
system is equipped with its habitual motor responses 
to life's stimuli. The whole nervous system of a man 
is like the drainage system on the surface of the soil, — 
the new showers are carried off by the old channels; 
so the new stimuli are drafted off through the old paths 
in the brain and spinal cord. It is both a coarse and 
a hypothetical way of expressing it, but the physio- 
logical idea is that our habits are brain- ruts. We 
should probably approach more nearly the literal truth 
by saying that habits are the more pervious pathways 
in the nervous system of the motor discharges. As 
Dr. Carpenter has expressed it, "Our nervous system 
grows to the modes in which it has been exercised;" 
or, in the language of Professor James, "An acquired 
habit from the physiological point of view is nothing 
but a new pathway of discharge formed in the brain, 
by which certain incoming currents tend ever after to 

* Cramer, "Talks to Students on the Art of Study," p. 9. 



Forming Habits 297 

escape." * Thus, in brief, plasticity of the nervous 
system and brain paths increasingly easy to follow tell 
the story of the explanation of habit. 

It ought to be remarked, by way of parenthesis at 
this point, in order to prevent too gross conceptions of 
the effects of habits upon the nervous system, that no 
anatomy of the brain is sufficiently advanced to trace 
one of these brain paths, that we do not know surely 
yet whether a nerve current is electrical in character, 
and that consequently the whole physiological ex- 
planation given above is strictly speculative and not 
scientific in character. But as Plato was accustomed 
to observe when uncertain about any point, "something 
of the kind must be true." 

There are two influences brought to bear upon these Effects of 

. . Nutrition 

changed conditions m the nervous system due to use and Age. 
whose effects it is important to consider. These are 
nutrition and age. Every one knows how the growth 
of a tree preserves any wound to its trunk, and how the 
growth of the human body preserves the scar of any 
considerable injury. These rough illustrations may 
help us to grasp the notion that the nutrition to nerve 
cells suppHed by the coursing blood keeps the nerve 
tissue in its changed state. And just as the lapse of 
days hardens putty and concrete, so the lapse of years 
gradually reduces the plasticity of the nervous system, 
until finally the whole is practically set like some 
plaster cast of a man. In a real and literal sense the 
plastic youth is thus fashioning in his nervous system 
by the daily deeds the pattern of his own manhood. 

^ James, "Briefer Psychology," p. 134. 



Second 
Definition 
of Habit. 



298 The Psychological Principles of Education 

By the age of thirty the most of us are the servants of 
our past selves. We may make new resolutions, but 
we cannot give ourselves new nervous systems. Here 
indeed is the picture true that Omar has painted with 
Oriental imagery. 

" The Moving Finger writes ; and, having writ, 
Moves on : nor all your Piety nor Wit 

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, 
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it." 

Only the moving finger is not fate, but will. 

To complete our explanation of habit in terms of 
plasticity, brain paths, and the effects of nutrition and 
time, we may say that habit is the meniory of the 
brain and spinal cord, and these never forget. The 
physiologists tell us that perhaps the nerve cells in 
brain and spinal cord number three thousand million. 
Their combinations are more than ample to register 
every single thought, feeling, and deed of many more 
years than are allotted to the life of any man. And 
thus, as a second definition of habit, we may say, it is 
the change of nerve structure with use. 



The Sinister The nature and explanation of habit have afforded 
Habit, us Opportunity to see that there is both a dark and a 

bright side to the tendency in the nervous system to 
repeat. The sinister side of habit appears, first, in 
TheSuscep- the Consideration that, though good habits are more 
Nervous easily formed as better suited to the natural uses of the 
System to ncrvous systcm, still bad habits can be formed. At 

Bad Habits. -^ ' 

first the whole system of a man will mightily rebel at 



Forming Habits 299 

any excess or injurious shock to its equilibrium, such as 
it never shows at the beginning of a good and natural 
habit, but in the end the injurious habit is itself in- 
corporated in the nervous system Hke a stone or a 
barbed wire about which a tree has grown, until finally, 
I more's the pity, the cessation of the habit, even if 
possible, would be as injurious as its continuance. 

Second, while good habits are our best friends, never ^"^ ^°^^* 
deserting us in the time of need, bad habits are our 
worst enemies, sapping our vitaHty in times both of 
strength and weakness. When our nervous system is 
weakest, then are we least able to inhibit the action of 
the brain paths utiHzed by the destructive thing. The 
bad habit is merciless ; it not only throws us, but, once 
we are down, jumps on us and holds us there. 
Third, the sinister side of habit appears in the fact Diminishing 

,. . . , .,.,.. Possibilities. 

that every day dimmishes our possibilities; we are 
young and plastic but once; the Hfe cannot be gone 
over again. This is well for us if the first deeds are 
right deeds, but endlessly discomforting if the first 
deeds are wrong deeds. Thrice miserable is the man 
who awakes to find he has hit the wrong trail in 
Hfe and yet cannot back track. In the journey of 
life we leave untrodden paths behind us every 
choice we make. The only safe direction is to 
do the first time only those things one is willing to 
continue. 

Fourth, habit tends to make feeHng indifferent, indifference. 
The enterprise launched with such high hopes, buoyant 
enthusiasm, and waving of flags, comes to a dead calm 
often in the ocean of monotony. The countryman 



300 The Psychological Principles of Education 

does not notice the clouds, the mountains, and the 
sunsets about his ancestral home so elevating to his 
city visitor, and the city man does not notice the rush 
and roar all about him so confusing to the country- 
man. In the one case habit has graded pleasure down 
to indifference, and in the other case it has graded 
discomfort up to indifference. The good habits whose 
effortful formation gave us some high sen-se of self- 
mastery are now for us a matter of course, and the 
bad habits whose chosen beginnings so terrified our 
conscience and humbled our self-respect are now for 
us also the same matter of course. As with the prisoner 
of Chillon, the shades of our dungeon may make us in- 
different to the Hght of the sun. Habit is the enemy of 
strong feeling. To quicken in us the pulse again, to 
brighten the eye, to crimson the cheek, the old must 
periodically give place to the new. 

How to 'pi^g practical question next arises as to how habits 

make or ^ ^ 

break may be forged or broken. It is already evident that 

Habits. -^ |g easier to get them than to get rid of them, for in 

getting them the nervous system is virgin soil, while in 
getting rid of them the nervous system is like the under- 
ground of a big city. The consequence is that we 
usually keep the habits we get. The formation of right 
habits is vastly better than the reformation of bad 
habits. The answer to our practical question consists 
in observing five familiar maxims. 
Action. First, act on every opportunity. The set to the 

nervous system is given by deeds, not words. Better a 
single right act than a dozen resolutions to act rightly ; 



Forming Habits 301 

in breaking a habit better a single refusal now than a 
dozen intentions to refuse next time. 

Second, make a strong start. Well begun is here ^ strong 

.... Start. 

indeed half done. The vigorous initiative is like the 
first deep furrow through fallow land, — it may in- 
troduce a new system of drainage. To set forth with- 
out a stout heart is to invite failure. 

Third, allow no exception. Consider each time that ^^ 

, , , . . —11 • • Exception. 

the whole issue is at stake. The exception is the storm 
that carries away from the foundation the inhibiting 
dam across the undesired brain path. The whole 
structure must be founded anew, with less likelihood 
of success than before. 

Fourth, for the bad habit, substitute something good. Substitute 

' ' ° ° the Good. 

To keep the mind on the good is easier than to keep it 
off the bad. The positive occupation, not the negative 
prohibition, must engross attention. Withdraw the 
mind from the ills we have by centring it on the goods 
we want. 

And fifth, summoning all the man within, use effort e^^'^^*- 
of will. By these momentous words nothing more 
mysterious is meant here than listening attentively to 
the low whispers of duty in the midst of the storm in 
the soul, looking intently upon the shining face of 
goodness when wanton figures play among the shadows 
of the imagination, and laying hold upon some sohd 
righteous thing w^hen the soul grows faint and dizzy 
in the world's wild whirl. 

Something of the sense of the importance of habit The impor- 
must have come upon us already as we have rehearsed Habit. . 
together these familiar things about the patterns we 



302 The Psychological Principles of Education 

are weaving into the web of life. A simple enumera- 
tion of what habit does for us will suffice to magnify 
its importance in our estimation. Without illustra- 
tion it will be obvious how habit makes action accu- 
rate and speedy through the acquisition of skill and 
the simplification of movement; how it consequently 
diminishes fatigue and permits vaster accomplishments ; 
how it mechanizes the essentials of survival, like walk- 
ing, eating, dressing, talking, sleeping, working, and 
the rest, leaving the mind thus free for the solution of 
problems and the undertaking of the new tasks set 
for civilization; how it introduces the element of 
reliability into personal and social action, thus per- 
mitting cooperation in the world's work to continue, 
and incidentally the unscrupulous to fatten on the 
honest; and, finally, and most personally of all, how 
it fixes into firmness the character of a man and pre- 
sents it to eternity. Unless the law of continuity 
fails, what a man shall be is the fuffilmient of what 
he is now becoming. Destiny is the harvest of char- 
acter; character is the summation of habit; habit is 
the repetition of deed ; deed is the expression of thought ; 
and thought is the spring of life. The far-off issue 
of life is out of the thoughts of the heart ; keep then 
thy heart with all diligence. 

Educational ^^d what are the educational conclusions of the 

Conclusions. 

Education as wholc matter? First, as teachers we must think of 
Habit. the whole of education as a process of habit forma- 

tion. From this point of view education should aim 
to equip the nervous system of the young with habits 



Forming Habits 303 

of suitable reaction on life's stimuli. As Bacon with 
characteristic pithiness has expressed it: "Many- 
examples may be put of the force of custom, both upon 
mind and body; therefore, since custom is the prin- 
cipal magistrate of man's life, let men by all means 
endeavor to obtain good customs. Certainly, custom 
is most perfect when it beginneth in young years ; this 
we call education, which is, in effect, but an early cus- 
tom." ^ 

Second, the greatness of education consists in the TheGreat- 
fact that it captures the plastic nervous system or the Education, 
youth of the world. Nerve plasticity and the school 
age ar©' practically identical : it is the former, of course, 
that determines the latter. No institution, like busi- 
ness, that touches man's life in its maturity can begin 
to compare in opportunity with education. In the 
final round-up of human character a single year in 
the teens contributes more than the whole decade of 
the forties. To be a year late entering business where 
all years are alike means nothing; to be a year early 
in leaving school where all years are unique means 
absolute loss. To make a life is more than to make 
a living. 

Third, the nervous system of children appears al- inspiration 
most equally susceptible to good and bad habits. A warning, 
nervous system is born into the world neither upright 
nor depraved, but plastic ; it has no habits ; its drain- 
age system, other than for instinctive acts, is unformed ; 
unfortunately, it may be weakened through parental 
excesses or deprivations, but even here nature shows 

^ Francis Bacon, "Essay on Custom and Education." 



304 The Psychological Principles of Education 



First Action, 

then 

Thought. 



Instruction. 



herself a kind mother to the offspring and is surpris- 
ingly protective ; fortunately, too, acquired parental bad 
habits are probably not transmissible. This situation to 
the teacher is both an inspiration and a warning : an 
inspiration, in that this child comes almost brand-new 
from the fruitful womb of nature and is all ours for 
the time ; a warning, lest in any way unwittingly from 
us his little system is fashioned awry or not directed 
aright. But when our knowledge is outdone and our 
tongues cease, then it is, let us remember, that love 
never faileth. 

Fourth, under adolescence, strive primarily for 
habits of right action; during and after adolescence, 
for habits of right thinking. The reason is evident: 
with the younger, the act is the thing; instincts and 
impulses, imitations and suggestions, these are fash- 
ioning the child into habits of action long before it is 
thinking out rational plans of living for itself. But 
with the adolescent all the wealth of his emotional 
and volitional life is coming under the sway of his 
rationality, and here it is all important that the habits 
of right thinking be formed to insure against change 
the habits of right acting, and to secure a sane and 
wholesome outlook on life. Of course it should go 
without saying that children are also beginning to 
think and that adolescents are continuing to act. The 
point is that with children acts, and with adolescents 
thoughts, count most. 

Fifth, hence it is that in early adolescence pupils 
should carefully be taught the nature and importance 
of habit. It is at this time that life habits are being 



Forming Habits 305 

chosen, either old ones reaffirmed or new ones selected. 
At this age pupils can deliberate, and a litde instruc- 
tion as to what a habit really is and means will always, 
crede experto, be valued and utilized. There is no 
scientific subject, not even the effects of alcohol upon 
the system, that will so carry its own message as habit. 
Give it a chance. I wish I knew how to say strongly 
that boys atid girls reaching adolescence should be 
taken into the utmost confidence of fathers and 
mothers, principals and teachers, concerning those 
personal habits that make or mar the beauty and joy 
of human living. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. Inheritance of Habits. 

2. Generalized Habits. 

3. Explanation of Plasticity. 

4. Indirect Education of the Will. 

References on Habit 

Angell, Psychology, pp. 52-63. 

Baker, Education and Life, pp. 92-95. 

Calderwood, On Teaching, ch. IV. 

Griggs, Moral Education, ch. XIV. 

James, Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, ch. IV. 

MacCunn, The Making of Character, Part I, ch. VI. 

Morgan, Habit and Instinct, ch. VII. 

Oppenheim, Mental Growth and Control, ch. VII. 

Royce, Outlines of Psychology, pp. 197-208. 

Thorndike, Educationjal Psychology, ch. V. 

Thomdike, Elements of Psychology, pp. 199-229. 



CHAPTER XXVII 



DELIBERATING AND CHOOSING 



Advance 
over Pre- 
ceding 
Stages. 



Appearance 
of Individ- 
uality. 



Importance 
of Choice. 



At this point consciousness takes possession of 
action. Hitherto consciousness has been the spectator 
or the assistant in action originated largely without 
itself. It now becomes the judge and the executor of 
action. Here fully the will is consciousness in action. 

In this new stage in the development of will the sense 
of individuality is regnant. No longer simply a fol- 
lower, one is now also an originator. The power of 
initiative is developed. The dignity of being a person 
is felt. All the earlier influences of instinct, impulse, 
imitation, suggestion, and habit are present in full 
force, but brought into ordered subjection to the self. 
Negatively, the new period means self-control; posi- 
tively, it means self-expression. 

In actual extent the part played by deliberation and 
choice is comparatively slight, but momentous. A 
choice may reaffirm a bad habit that shall reduce 
future life to servitude, or it may support a good im- 
pulse that will liberate the divine powers resident in 
manhood. What an adolescent is may be credited 
mostly to his heredity and environment; what he be- 
comes must also be credited to himself. This period 
means the enthronement of reason, either to rule or 
misrule. 

306 



Deliberating and Choosing 307 

By deliberation we mean the estimating of impulses Definitions 
to action, or motives, and their consequences ; and by ^^^^ an/^^" 
choice we mean the mind's affirmation of one of these choice, 
motives, thereby inhibiting the others. A deliberate 
act is thus one performed after reflection. Our first 
deliberate acts are probably attempts to correct wrong 
impulsive acts. The essential function of a dehberate 
act is to prevent hasty, and so possibly wrong, reactions 
to stimuli, and to secure right reactions; in short, to 
secure most beneficial reactions or stimuli. The high- 
est type of responsive action is intelligent. 

The possibiHty of a deliberate act thus presupposes What a 

, . . . , , . , . , . 1 r Deliberate 

several tnmgs, viz. (i) time to tnmk, a period of Act implies. 
hesitancy and uncertainty; (2) several apparently 
open possibilities of action, held before consciousness 
as ideas; (3) as these ideas are all more or less 
attractive to consciousness, there are conflicting motives 
or desires, a motive or desire being just the attractiveness 
of an idea for consciousness; (4) there may also be 
present an ultimate motive or standard, by which the 
others are to be estimated, e.g. the desire to do right, 
the intention to succeed regardless of means, etc. ; and 
(5) choice, or the selection of one of the ideas to follow. 
In short, a deliberate act is the resolution of conflict- 
ing desires. 
As everywhere in mentahty, and nowhere more individual 

•^ Variations m 

noticeably than in dehberation, individual differences Choosing, 
appear. Professor James enumerates "five chief types 
of decision," as follows, (i) the reasonable type, which 
adopts without effort or constraint the alternative 
favored by the balance of arguments ; (2) the drifting 



3o8 The Psychological Principles of Education 

type, which follows a course accidentally determined 
from without; (3) the reckless type, which follows a 
course accidentally determined from within; (4) the 
converting type, whereby "we suddenly pass from the 
easy and careless to the sober and strenuous mood;" 
and (5) the effort type, in which with a feeling of 
effort we choose the hard right thing rather than the 
easy wrong thing. Any individual may at different 
times illustrate each type; he also probably tends to 
conform generally to one of the types. 



The Teach- 
er's Assist- 
ance. 



The Knowl- 
edge of the 
Right. 



It is evident that the nature of deliberation and the 
types of choices determine the kind of assistance which 
the educator may render pupils who have reached this 
stage of development. In general, but two things are 
necessary here, which, however, are very comprehensive, 
viz. the knowledge of the right, and the disposition to 
do it. To consider each of these separately. 

First, the knowledge of the right. When pupils are 
beginning to think for themselves, the time has come 
for direct ethical instruction. The fully fashioned will 
must be instructed; an uninstructed will, however 
faultless its conformity to right standards, does not 
possess itself. To do right through choice presupposes 
a knowledge of the right. Pupils who are deliberating, 
and so can use knowledge in the direction of conduct, 
must be taught what the virtues and duties are. This 
should be done incidentally by all teachers in all fitting 
connections, and also specifically in connection with an 
elective high school course in Ethics. To fit teachers for 
their work of incidental as well as specific ethical in- 



Deliberating and Choosing 309 

struction, the training of teachers should include a 
careful study of ethics and practical sociology. Such 
training would enable teachers to indicate to pupils the 
ethical bearings of all class-room questions on practical 
living. We require teachers to be of good moral 
character, but we do not require that they should know 
the elements of morality. 

The ethical instruction in the schools, in order rightly The Mini- 

. , ., . -, 1 mumofEthi- 

to mediate conduct with ideas, must include, as a cai instruc- 



tion. 



minimum, teaching (i) the duty of deliberation. '*To 
think is the moral act," says Professor James. It holds 
the equilibrium of ideas until the die be cast aright. 
(2) The instillation of a moral ideal, for example, the 
Golden Rule, as a standard by which to judge motives, 
to follow this ideal being the ultimate motive of all 
choices and living. (3) Teaching the consequences of 
good and bad choices upon self and others ere they 
are made. Put the moral experience of the race at the 
disposition of the young deliberator. In short, after- 
dehberation arises, the first essential in the training 
of the will is the training in right ideas. 

Socrates, indeed, thought that this was enough, that is it enough 
knowledge is virtue, that virtue could be taught, that if Right ? 
a man knew what was right and that it was good for 
him, with pleasurable consequences, he would do it, 
for every man is seeking what is good, that is, pleasur- 
able, for him. Plato also thought that it was enough, 
that all vice is involuntary, and due to the lie of igno- 
rance in the soul. This is the hedonism and the intel- 
lectualism of Greece before Aristotle, who saw and said 
that the famous dictum of Socrates confused the means 



3IO The Psychological Principles of Education 

with the end and identified a part of virtue with the 
whole. But with Socrates and Plato we must agree in 
part, viz. without knowledge, no virtue, though there 
may be innocence. We may go one step further and 
say, in accord with Bain's principle of ideo-motor 
action, to know the right is to be tempted to do it, 
and to think of nothing but the right is indeed to do it. 
But what Socrates and Plato fail to observe, the volun- 
tarism of Aristotle and of Christian thinking recognizes. 
It is possible to see and approve the better and follow the 
worse. Human nature is weak and does not always 
respond to the ideas of the right ; it is thoughtless, and 
fails to remember the right; it is inattentive, and lets 
the right slip out of consciousness; it is prone to evil, 
and lets pleasures of wrong-doing fill the focus of con- 
sciousness; so that virtue is not alone knowledge of 
the right, — it is knowledge plus performance. In 
addition to training in right ideas, we need, therefore, — 
The pis- Second, the disposition to follow them. How shall 

^o^^T *° teachers cultivate in pupils the disposition to do as well 
^^g^^- as they know? Here our task is indeed difficult. 

Morals cannot be taught, though ethics can; the dis- 
position to do right cannot be taught, though it can be 
cultivated ; character is not a gift from teacher to pupil, 
though it may be achieved by the pupil, under the 
stimulus of the teacher. In cultivating the disposition 
to do the right our reliance must be placed in these three 
things, viz. right bringing up, the location of respon- 
sibility, and reaching the individual pupil according to 
his type of decision. A word concerning each of these. 
First, children who are reared right through all the 



Deliberating and Choosing 311 

preceding stages of will from instinct through habit Right Rear- 
have ingrained in their dispositions a moral bent, recep- 
tivity, and responsiveness. Making right adolescent 
choices is first a matter of having right pre-adolescent 
habits. As Aristotle, that wise and catholic moralist, 
observes, "The man who has had a good moral train- 
ing either already has arrived at principles of action, 
or will easily accept them when pointed out." 

Second, we may cultivate the disposition to do the Location of 
right by the definite placing of responsibility upon young biuty. 
thinkers and actors. It sobers, it increases the moral 
statute, it develops the sense of responsibihty. Systems 
of school management that do not trust older pupils to 
look after themselves need not be surprised if they are 
unable to do so when left to themselves. The college 
boys that give most trouble come from paternalistic 
schools. The adolescent pupil must learn to choose 
by choosing. To shield him from bad choices by re- 
fusing him all choices is disastrous in the end. Like 
the race, he too must take counsel of his mistakes. To 
save from blunders at any cost is not a principle of 
moral education. President Eliot writes: "This cul- 
tivation [of the will] can come only through choosing 
and doing; it cannot come through submission, un- 
reasoning obedience, inaction, or any sort of passive- 
ness. In this respect a child's training closely resembles 
a whole people's training. Democracy makes choices 
and decisions, and acts for itself." ^ 

Third, cultivate the disposition to follow the right Dealing with 

11. .,,.,..,, ., ,. , . thelndivid- 

by dealmg with the mdividual pupil according to his uaiw^ui. 
* Q, W. Eliot, "The School," Atlantic Monthly^ Npyember, 190^, 



312 The Psychological Principles of Education 

type of decision when you can. With the rational type 
it is necessary only to reason together in private. 
With the drifting type, you must attach him very closely 
to yourself, that he may feel the momentum of your 
current. The reckless type is to be treated as the over- 
impulsive child above. The converting type of decision 
every pupil should be led to make in conjunction with 
the agencies of the church before leaving the secondary 
school. Never again will life seem quite so serious as 
to the graduating high school pupils. It is the time to 
set the nervous system on the high level. The effortful 
type of decision will take care of itself; here we have 
not to teach but to learn. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. Direct Ethical Instruction. 

2. Text -books in Ethics. 

3. Freedom of the Will, 

4. Limitation of Choice. 

References on Deliberating and Choosing 

Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order, ch. XII. 
Griggs, Moral Education, ch. XIX. 
James, Principles of Psychology, Vol. II, pp. 579-592. 
James, Talks to Teachers, XV. 

MacCunn, The Making of Character, Part III, chs. I and II. 
Search, An Ideal School, ch. XVI. 

Thompson, Moral Instruction in Schools, Int. J. of Ethics, Octo- 
ber, 1904. 



Action. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

SECURING ATTENTION 

It may be a little surprising to us at first to find the Attention 

1. • r • 11 1 • r -11 -1 conditions 

discussion of attention under the subject of will, but a conscious 
Httle reflection will show us that here is the place for 
it. Each one of the preceding stages in the develop- 
ment of will has really included an element of attention, 
which we did not then and there notice, to avoid too 
much complexity in the argument. A little review will 
now show that consciousness was really attentive also 
when it was acting under the influences of instinct, im- 
pulse, imitation, suggestion, habit, and choice. Had 
not consciousness attended, either involuntarily or vol- 
untarily, to each of these types of action, it is doubtful 
whether any action would have taken place. Thus we 
see that attention is the omnipresent condition of that 
conscious action which we know as will. 

The psychological literature on attention is large, 
whose conclusions, as hitherto in these practical dis- 
cussions, we must largely take for granted as known, 
that we may pass on at once to their bearing on the 
teacher's work. Just at this point, for instance, it is 
necessary to omit such topics as the nature, con- 
ditions, effects, and explanation of attention, that we 
may have space to discuss the hindrances and the helps 
to attention in the work of teaching. 

313 



314 The Psychological Principles of Education 



The Mean- 
ing of 
Attention. 



We are already so familiar with the term and with that 
mental condition for which it stands that it will be 
clear to define attention as consciousness occupying 
itself with any object. It is important to observe that 
that object of attention may be either internal or ex- 
ternal ; that is, it may be a feeling, or an idea, as well 
as a deed or a physical body. These two directions of 
attention clearly appeared in the distinction between 
inner and outer perception in chapter VIII. 

All teachers want the attention of their pupils. How 
to get it and how to keep It after getting it are therefore 
constant problems. We may profitably begin our in- 
quiry by asking, What are the hindrances to attention ? 
These in themselves are largely removable through 
our ejfforts directly, or indirectly with the aid of the 
home. 



Hindrances 
to Attention. 



Poor 

Physical 

Conditions. 



The enumeration of the hindrances to attention on the 
part of pupils would include in general three types of 
things, viz. poor physical conditions, poor mental 
conditions, and certain poor school practices. To con- 
sider these in succession. 

Poor physical conditions would include such matters 
as the following, viz. a weak physical body whose 
quantity of nervous energy is not adequate to the de- 
mands made upon it by a concentrated consciousness; 
distractions of sight and sounds, the doing of other 
things than the regular work in hand, such as the open- 
ing or closing of doors and windows during the reci- 
tation ; bad ventilation, introducing noxious gases into 
the lungs that stupefy brain action ; poor temperature 



Securing Attention 315 

conditions, dividing attention between the work and 
the physical sensations of heat and cold; and uncom- 
fortable furnishings, seats and desks, that induce con- 
tinual readjustments of position. 

Poor mental conditions that hinder attention would Poor Mental 

111 .11 1 1 .11 Conditions. 

mclude such matters as mdolence, that can and will not 
attend ; obstinacy, that wills not to attend ; weak wills, 
that apparently lack the ability to make an effort; 
emotional excitement, such as fear, that would attend 
if it could ; intellectual quickness, that does not attend 
because it does not have to do so in order to keep up ; 
and, perhaps greater than all other poor mental con- 
ditions combined, uninteresting work, that does not 
naturally invite attention. It may be well to remark 
at this point that the so-called indolent pupil regularly 
has one or two matters of vital interest to him in which 
he becomes very busily engaged on every opportunity, 
and through which he may be reached by knitting on 
one interest to another; also, that an obstinate child 
may frequently best be ignored until he straightens out ; 
and also, that the wandering attention of an intellec- 
tually quick pupil may often be restrained by habitually 
caUing on him to answer the questions which he did 
not hear. 

Poor school practices that hinder attention are, for Poor School 
example, the requirement that a rigidly stiff bodily 
position be maintained, as though pupils, to borrow 
Compayre's phrase, were ''thinking statues"; also 
censuring or punishing a pupil in the presence of other 
pupils, which for the time being interrupts the whole 
school order ; and the besetting sin of whispering, due 



3i6 The Psychological Principles of Education 

to the fundamental instinct of communication when 
stimulated by idleness, for which there is no defence, and 
whose cure is either interesting occupation or voluntary 
restraint. These, then, are the frequent hindrances to 
attention, the most of them capable of removal. 

The Two What are the helps to attention? Before we can 

Kinds of ,....,,, , 

Attention. auswcr this question it will be necessary to note the two 
kinds of attention, viz. the involuntary and the volun- 
tary. Involuntary attention is that given to an interest- 
ing object, as when a thrilHng story engrosses us, or a 
charming speaker holds us spellbound, or some skilful 
or exciting performance rivets our gaze, or even when 
, we raise the window shades in the morning to see what 
the weather is going to be like to-day. In such cases 
the attention is called involuntary because we attend 
without any effort of will, but naturally, easily, spon- 
taneously. Voluntary attention, on the other hand, is 
that given to an uninteresting, though important, matter, 
as when we hunt through railway guides, unattractive 
in themselves, to find the train we want, or pursue 
the study of a difficult and unattractive lesson, or 
write a delayed letter as a matter of sheer duty, or 
even turn from an agreeable after-dinner conver- 
sation to the routine work of the evening. In such 
cases the attention is called voluntary because it seems 
to require some effort of will, some slight or severe 
struggle, some inhibition of the line of least resistance, 
a setting of oneself to do what otherwise would not be 
accomplished. In summary it might be said that the 
stimulus to involuntary attention is the feeling of in- 



Securing Attention 317 

terest, the stimulus to voluntary attention is effort of 
will; in the former we yield ourselves to the agreeable, 
in the latter we nerve ourselves to do the disagreeable. 
It is to be noted that the uninteresting object receiving 
voluntary attention is always deemed by us to be im- 
portant, that is, it has a bearing on our future lives, as 
when the youth studies calculus which he does not like 
for the sake of the future engineering which he expects 
to like. The point of this remark is that while in- 
voluntary attention is our response to an immediate 
interest, voluntary attention is our response to an ulti- 
mate interest. This ultimate interest is not a felt good, 
it is a conceived good. It is evident that the ability 
to act through conceived rather than felt goods is one 
of the differentia of superior intelligence and maturer 
power. 

After this brief excursus into the theory of attention we The Secret 

. of Attention, 

are prepared to answer with some assurance the ques- 
tion. What are the helps to attention ? The psychological 
principles in getting attention reduce themselves to two, 
viz. arouse interest and secure effort. How glibly these 
great words run off from our pen and fall from our 
lips ! Attention through interest and effort, — that is 
it, surely ; interest for involuntary attention and effort 
for voluntary attention. The secret seems to be in our 
possession. But what are interest and effort, and how 
may they be gotten? We have but words until this 
question is answered. 

Interest is the feeling prompting to spontaneous How to 

• • T 1 r- 11' arouse 

activity. It may be aroused, first, through whetting interest. 



3i8 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Curiosity. 



Appercep- 
tion. 



the appetite of curiosity, taking care to keep the demand 
slightly in excess of the supply. Where there is no 
desire to know, there is no interest in the acquisition of 
knowledge : or, where desire has failed, further supply 
is satiation, not satisfaction. We teach and we get no 
attentive response, because there is no mental appetite 
for our wares. Only those who hunger and thirst after 
instruction can be filled. Or, as Plato puts it, "Iris, 
the messenger of heaven, is the daughter of Thaumas." 
Prepare the minds of the class for the content of the 
lesson before its presentation is begun. Be inventive 
of methods of awakening the questioning attitude in the 
class concerning the topic in hand. We should arouse 
more interest if we spent less time in communicating 
and more time in stimulating. Fortunately, nature is 
on our side, curiosity is an instinct, and to awaken it 
the slightest stimulus is often ample. 

Second, having begun by arousing curiosity, continue 
by connecting new material with old interests. Every 
set of boys and girls have a stock of contemporary in- 
terests on hand, some personal, some social, some 
poHtical, and so on, and all constantly fluctuating. 
Study these, and make the teaching of the lesson an 
interpretation of Hfe. To every pupil the schoolroom 
should be the mirror of himself. The interests he brings 
with him are developed and enlarged and understood 
by means of the instruction he receives. To miss the 
point of contact with our pupils is not to teach, it is to 
be a taskmaster. A lesson begun in wonder and con- 
tinued as a Hfe process will have the interested, the 
enchained attention of the class. 



Securing Attention 319 

The motor power of interest in education has not LeConte 
even yet been widely enough utihzed. Professor Le 
Conte tells the story in his autobiography of an experi- 
ence of his with some criminals in a prison in Carson 
City in 1882. Fossil footprints had been found in the 
sandstone of the prison yard. He secured the aid of 
the convicts in blasting out the specimens and hunting 
for more. He writes, "They enjoyed the investigation 
intensely and worked very intelligently. We entirely 
forgot that they were criminals and some of them mur- 
derers, and all worked together with interest. The 
effect of their work and interest in it were wonderful ; 
before dull and sullen, they became bright, eager, 
cheerful, and happy." 

Effort is the will to do the hard right thin?. It is Howtose- 

1 -r^ r o cure Effort. 

necessary for voluntary attention, and Professor Stout 
makes us pause to think when he says, "All mental 
training and discipline depend on the victory of volun- 
tary attention." ^ Effort is to be secured through 
some ultimate, not immediate, interest. Ultimate in- Awaken 
terests may themselves be either superficial or profound interests. 
in character. Superficial ultimate interest, leading to 
the voluntary performance of uninteresting work, would 
be illustrated by such things as desire for promotion, 
marks, prizes, and the teacher's word of praise; pro- 
found ultimate interests mean the awakening of life 
purposes, the forming of life plans, the pursuit of chosen 
ideals, the disagreeable and arduous means for these 
worthy ends being manfully undertaken for the sake of 
their outcome. The advance to the profound ultimate 

^ Stout, "Manual of Psychology," p. 613. 



320 The Psychological Principles of Education 

interests will usually have to be made through the 
superficial. We may be sure that some pupils will 
always be stimulated to make an effort, if we show 
our dissatisfaction at inferior work, if we insist that re- 
quired work is required, if we evidently set great store 
by such school habits as neatness, courtesy, regularity 
in preparation, and punctuality in attendance. But 
worthy our highest endeavor and most consecrated 
tact is the awakening in individual pupils of some pro- 
found ultimate interest which will seriously occupy 
their lives despite every seductive temptation to ease 
or weighty cross to bear. 

The Rival Thus wc havc Suggested that in the art of securing 

Interest and attention it is ucccssary both to arouse interest and to 

Effort. secure effort. These two great dynamic agencies have 

fallen in so naturally with the two essential forms of 

attention that perhaps it did not occur to us at first that 

really we are treading on a battle-ground, with interest 

and effort as the historic foes. Yet such is the case. 

These two are rivals, and it is now incumbent upon us 

to attempt to adjudicate their claims.^ Several things 

are to be said to give each its due and to remand each 

back to its proper place in educational training. 

Old and New The first thing to be said is that interest is the strength 

Education. . t n- • ^ 

of the new education and effort is the strength of the 
old. In the new education, child study, the growth of 
games and play, the elective system, the note of in- 
dividuality, the decrease of espionage, and increase of 

^ Cf. Dewey, "Interest as Related to Will," Herbart Year Book, 
1895, second supplement. 



Securing Attention 321 

trust in pupils to care for themselves, — all this means 
the presence of interest. In the old education, study 
of texts, long, hard hours, the repression of instincts, 
the prescribed system, the absence of nature study and 
history, the bare walls and plain furnishings, — all 
this meant effort. The danger of interest alone is a 
consequent flabbiness of character, it is said, as the 
danger of effort alone was a certain narrowness and 
severity of character. This contrast between the new 
and the old is strikingly set forth by a defendant of the 
old in the following language : ''The whole new system 
of education, from a child's first school to a man's last 
degree, is based on this principle, which we may call 
the principle of the kindergarten, — not literally, of 
course, but in general temper. You must try to find 
out just what everybody likes best and then help him 
to do it as kindly as you can. . . . The practical aim 
of a general education ... is such training as shall 
enable a man to devote his faculties intently to matters 
which of themselves do not interest him. The power 
which enables a man to do so is obviously the power 
of voluntary, as distinguished from spontaneous, atten- 
tion." ^ The new education, whose strength is interest, 
cannot afford to cut loose entirely from the strength of 
the old, which came through effort. Interest has come 
to stay, but, in a world where the duties are often dis- 
agreeable, effort must not go. 

Second, we must rely primarily upon interest with Children and 

-I M 1 ri- '<• - Adolescents. 

children ; we must be able to rely upon effort, if neces- 

^ Barrett Wendell, "Our National Superstition," North American 
Review, September, 1904. 



322 The Psychological Principles of Education 

sary, with adolescents. Involuntary, immediate, sen- 
sorial attention characterizes animals, primitive men, 
and children ; in addition thereto, not instead thereof, 
voluntary, derived, intellectual attention characterizes 
adolescents and mature civilized minds. The divisions 
are not sharply defined, but they exist. A child has a 
maximum of involuntary and a minimum of voluntary 
attention; an adolescent may have a maximum of 
voluntary, and a minimum of involuntary attention. 
The adolescent does not lose what the child had, but 
adds to it. This means that the elementary school 
. work must be essentially interesting in character if the 
attention of children is to be had at all ; this is nature's 
doing, not ours; we must teach children as we find 
them, or fail; they belong not so much to themselves 
as to the attractive stimuli of their environment. What 
little and increasing voluntary attention they can give 
should be stimulated as rapidly as it appears, while 
our main dependence is not upon this tender shoot, 
but upon the sturdy interests native to the child's 
nature. Our principle also requires us to expect and 
demand effort from secondary school pupils whenever 
effort is necessary for the work in hand. 
Mutual Third, in the adjudication of the rival claims of in- 

Services. ■, rr i • • i 

terest and effort, we must observe their reciprocal ser- 
vices to each other. These services may be shown in 
several ways : for example, a course of study or work 
undertaken with interest and enthusiasm may become, 
frequently does become, stale and uninviting, though 
still recognized as important; at this point effort must 
carry the course through to its conclusion. Many of 



Securing Attention 323 

the philanthropic and humanitarian enterprises of 
society have been undertaken in bursts of enthusiasm, 
amid the waving of banners and the applause of men, 
only in the end either to be deserted or to be perfected 
through faithful and arduous labor. Such is the regu- 
lar history of building funds, mission funds, and me- 
diaeval and modern crusades of all sorts. Thus effort 
serves interest. 

To take another type of illustration. The true end 
of interest is not play, but work; not amusement, but 
solid achievement ; not diversion, but productive occu- 
pation. Interest begins the process which effort ends. 
Interest is the path and effort the destination. Fortu- 
nate is he whose interest follows him within the gates of 
the city of his effort and takes up its abode with him 
there. Interest may be present in the final labor of 
effort, and is so in the finest results of man's work, but 
it is necessary that the work be the fruitage of the 
interest. The essential thing is that the interest 
lead somewhere and be not mere pastime. Thus 
interest is the means to effort and effort is the end of 
interest. 

Still another type of illustration of the reciprocity of 
interest and effort. Many a beginning is difficult, 
starting is hard, taking hold is delayed, getting up 
momentum is with many a jump and jerk. Effort is 
always necessary to start a difficult process. Once 
going, the process continues almost of its own momen- 
tum. The subject, so difficult at the beginning to grasp, 
so novel, so unfamiliar with all we have known, as we 
pursue it grows upon us, becomes easier, and develops 



3^4 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Summary. 



interesting bearings. To continue such a study is no 
longer the effort it once was. We began it because we 
had to; we continue it because we want to. Many a 
man will avow that the business that engrosses his in- 
terest to-day was once thrust upon him through no 
choice of his own and pursued at first with many 
struggles and backward looks. The work once hard 
has become easy, once effortful has become interesting. 
Thus interest serves effort. 

And so, in sum, the rival claims of interest and 
effort are to be adjusted not by an "either . . . or" 
which excludes one of the two parties, but by a ''both 
. . . and" which includes the two parties; interest to 
make us work, work to make us interested. 



Secondary 
Ways of 
winning 
Attention. 



Negative 
Aids to At- 
tention. 



Asylums of 
Weakness. 

Mechanical 
Aids. 



Given both interest and effort, the problem of atten- 
tion in the schoolroom is solved, and solved according 
to the fundamental principles involved. There are 
certain secondary ways, however, of getting and holding 
attention, whose utility we must not fail to estimate. 
These secondary ways of winning attention may be 
either negative or positive in character, and to each 
group we will briefly advert. 

First, there are certain fairly effective but poor ways 
of getting attention. For example, we may beg it as 
a favor, claim it as a right, preach the importance of 
the subject, snap the fingers, rap on the desk, threaten, 
or promise rewards. The use of any of these means 
is practically a confession of our failure as teachers. 

Second, there are certain mechanical aids to attention, 
easily usable by all, and helpful in themselves. Such 



Securing Attention 325 

are, avoid any routine, however good ; introduce variety ; 
change the stereotyped method of asking questions; 
question the inattentive; stand after sitting; give all 
something to do; provide extra problems not in the 
book ; review ; illustrate ; dramatize history ; modernize 
arithmetic, using current prices; in short, variety in 
unity is the secret of all engaging teaching. 

Third, the attention of children is not to be fatigued. ^^°^^ 

° Fatigue 

Where recitation periods, or periods between recesses, 
are too long for the attention to remain on the qui vive, 
the indoor recess or ''the setting up drill" is to be 
utilized. Two minutes of freedom and fresh air will 
often save ten. That careful and patient observer of 
children. Professor Baldwin, writes: "The periods of 
study had better be too short than too long; for if the 
child grows tired, the effort becomes painful and the 
subject distasteful. Frequent recesses should be given, 
and recitations should not be longer than fifteen to 
twenty minutes for children under twelve to fourteen 
years of age. The child's interest should never be 
allowed to flag." * 

Fourth, a single subject should not engross attention ^"^ Early 

Specializa- 

in early life. During the period of greatest plasticity, tion. 
concentration upon a single subject gives the mind a 
bent in that direction, and prejudices it against general 
truth. The hobbies, even the monomanias, of age may 
sometimes be traced back to unbalancing and grew- 
some nursery stories. It is not good for attention to 
receive its set too early in hfe. 

Fifth, to prevent mind- wandering in oneself or pupils, 

* Baldwin, "Senses and Intellect," p. 78. 



326 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Use Many 
Senses. 



Positive Aids 
to Attention. 



A Develop- 
ing Lesson. 



A Good 
Schedule. 



it may suffice to use more senses at once. Supplement 
talk with chalk, pictures, and objects; read with the 
mouth as well as the eye ; hear with the lips as well as 
the ear, repeating the speaker's words after him. To 
use many senses instead of one is Hke storming a citadel 
from different directions at once. It should be said, 
however, that some mind- wandering is not preventable, 
that perfect concentration is not possible. A concen- 
trated attention is not one which never leaves the main 
track, it is one which does not stay side-tracked. 

Passing from these negative considerations, we may 
note certain positive secondary ways of securing atten- 
tion. And first, the lesson we teach must develop 
under our handling during the recitation, and it must 
develop as rapidly as is consistent with the understand- 
ing of the class. No halting, nor even marking time, 
but a forward marching, as the subject unfolds itself, is 
necessary for the attention to be kept. Attention is 
more easily caught and kept by a moving than a station- 
ary sign ; just so the object of attention in the class-room 
must be continually changing and presenting new faces. 

Second, a right arrangement of the schedule of work 
facilitates attention. The curve of vitality is highest in 
the first hours of the morning, there is a gradual de- 
cline until the lowest point is reached in the first part 
of the afternoon, when there is a tendency upward 
again. The work requiring closest attention should 
come during the freshest hours, and the work permitting 
rather dispersed attention, especially work with move- 
ment of any kind in it, may profitably come in the early 
afternoon. 



Securing Attention 327 

Third, introduce attention exercises, providing a Attention 
place for such in the regimen of the school. Such 
exercises may be illustrated in this way, viz. read a 
story aloud and ask for an abstract of it ; read a stanza 
of a poem and ask that it be repeated ; read a long sen- 
tence and ask for the number of words it contains; 
give a long easy example in mental arithmetic; have 
as much multiplying done as possible in two minutes; 
take a long word and let each pupil name one letter; 
walk by a store window and make a list of its contents ; 
in three minutes write out all the characteristics of an 
object; and so on. Such exercises will probably not 
develop a power of attention equally applicable to other 
and dissimilar subjects ; they will probably give increased 
power of attention in similar subjects, and most impor- 
tant of all, they acquaint pupils by experience with what 
attention really is, leading them to feel and appreciate 
the value of attention, and so perchance giving them 
the idea that the way to work mentally is with a con- 
centrated attention. Thus attention may not become 
a general habit equally applicable to all subjects alike, 
but, what is better, it may be adopted as a conscious 
principle of mental work.^ 

Fourth, teachers who would have attentive classes vitality in 

Teacher 

need to be possessed with physical vitality. The teacher 
must be much alive who would have a wide-awake class. 
His room must be filled with his presence as an atmos- 
phere charged with electricity. Given this condition, 
he controls the attention with a look, with a question, 

^ Cf. F. C. Lewis, "A Study in Formal Discipline," School Review^ 
April, 1905. 



328 The Psychological Principles of Education 

with a story, with a bit of humour, with whatsoever the 
occasion happens to demand, 
and Fifth, the teacher who lacks attention from his class 

needs to love his subject more. Enthusiasm concerning 
any matter is a contagion. He who, forgetting all else, 
throws himself mentally and physically into the work 
of teaching his subject because he loves it, beHeves in 
it, and wants others to know it and be benefited by it, 
will carry away the attention of his pupils as with a 
flood. Cultivate your own interest in your subject by 
finding out something more about it. The astronomer 
like Professor Young makes us want to be astronomers 
when under the spell of his influence, an historian like 
Professor Hart makes us want to be historians, and 
Socrates would have certainly made us philosophers. 
Given the good teacher, the problem of attention 
vanishes, like the mist before the sun. Thus, when the 
last word is said, attention is not so much a condition 
of good teaching as its result. 

Summary of Thus wc havc passcd in review the development and 
Education, training of the will. Fit occupation this for honest 
souls, brave hearts, and strong minds. We have seen 
the complexity and the stretch of will from lowest 
reflex action to highest voluntary attention; the im- 
portance of knowing and directing the instincts of 
pupils; the necessity of strengthening right impulses 
and inhibiting wrong ones; the way to check the 
overimpulsive and forward the underimpulsive child; 
the kinds of models that children imitate and refuse ; 
the effective way to give a suggestion and the detrimental 



j Securing Attention 329 

suggestions in home and school from which our pupils 
are suffering; the determining influences of habits in 
life; the two essentials in the direct education of the 
will; and the creative words, interest and effort, in 
securing attention. 

But when all is said and done, the training of the will 
is no easy matter. We must bungle and botch many- 
more children fresh from the lap of nature in the very 
vitals of character, and pray God's forgiveness, before 
the home and the school can develop manhood aright. 
But here, as everywhere, study, trial, error, will bring 
us slowly toward success. Meanwhile, the sum of it 
all is, we truly educate the will when, by any or all of 
these ways, to immaturer selves than our own we freely 
give ourselves, who are Christ's, who is God's. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Nature of Attention. 

2. The Kinds of Attention. 

3. The Effects of Attention. 

4. The Physiological Explanation of Effort. 

5. Attention and Will. 

References on Attention 

Adams, Herbartian Psychology Applied to Education, ch. X. 

Aiken, Methods of Mind Traming, ch. III. 

Baldwin, Methods and Processes, ch. XV. 

Calkins, Introduction to Psychology, ch. XI. 

Fitch, The Art of Securing Attention. 

Hughes, Securing and Retaining Attention. 

James, Talks to Teachers, ch. XL 

Royce, OutHnes of Psychology, pp. 64-70, 258-264. 

Thorndike, Educational Psychology, ch. VIII. 

Titchener, Primer of Psychology, ch. V. 



PART V 

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION, OR EDUCATING THE 
SPIRIT IN MAN 



INTRODUCTION 
At this point we begin the discussion of rehgious Meaning of 

nr. r i i- • i . , Spirit and 

education. Too frequently rehgious education has Religious 
been regarded as a thing apart, as a certain kind of ^^^^^^^o^- 
education distinct from all others, or as the education 
of a certain section of the human nature distinct from 
other sections. Of course, this view of religious educa- 
tion belongs logically with a certain view of religion; 
namely, as something apart from the ordinary and 
usual life and interests of man, or as something dealing 
with a distinct element in his nature, or as something 
foreign that has to be grafted into his unreligious 
nature. The inclusion of the discussion of religious 
education in a book of this kind is intended as a protest 
against all this way of regarding religious education and 
religion. Rather is religious education the natural and 
logical conclusion of all education, just as religion is 
the natural and complete expression of man's being. 
And the spirit whose education we now undertake is 
not a mysterious and inaccessible entity within us, nor 
a part even of our accessible being, nor least of all a 
foreign element introduced into man by religion; it 
is simply and clearly the whole consciousness in its 
relation to deity. The education whose procedure we 
have so far been following has dealt with certain ele- 
ments in the spirit of man ; the education whose nature 
we now begin to consider unites these elements in the 

333 



3 34 The Psychological Principles of Education 

conscious spirit of man and directs that spirit to its 

home in God. By the spirit we mean, then, mind in 

relation to deity, and by educating the spirit, or religious 

education, we mean bringing man in his integrity into 

right relationship with God. 

Order of j^ conformity with and in justification of this con- 

Discussion. 1 . 1 • • T 

ception of educatmg the spirit there are certain princi- 
ples which guide us, whose statement must come at 
the beginning of our discussion. Then, still following 
here, as in the preceding parts of the book, the lines 
marked out by modern psychology, we must consider 
the development and training of the religious nature. 
Next will come the trio of the great and mutual agen- 
cies that serve the interests of religious education, viz. 
the home, the school, and the church. The general 
negative tone running through the discussion of the 
school will be relieved by a parallel positive tone and 
especially by the discussions of home and church on 
either side of the school. Finally, though the curric- 
ulum of religious education is vast and wandering, it 
will always have one central text, with whose con- 
sideration we conclude. Turn we then to these dis- 
cussions as to the fulfilment of the uncompleted 
educational processes hitherto considered. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

THE PRINCIPLES OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

We come then to a statement of the principles of 
religious education. 

In the first place, all truth is really God's truth. We All Truth is 

r 1 1 ' 11 • 1 r t God's Truth. 

feel this must be so when once we seriously face the ques- 
tion whether truth be a unity and so self- consistent, and 
so really the thought of God concerning reality. The 
truth which jesting Pilate sought was enfleshed before 
him, namely, God's thought of a man. The truth 
which the scientist seeks is embodied before him, 
namely, God's thought of a world. In man, in nature, 
the truth is the thought of God. This of course means 
utter justification for the common feeling that any least 
shred of truth found anywhere, in remotest star, in the 
solid earth, in a stirring emotion, or in a quieting 
thought, is sacred, having somewhat of divinity about 
it. 

But truth is the ideal of the intellect, it is the object The Nature 
of science; and the quickening of the sense of truth, intellectual 
we saw, is the very aim of intellectual education. But Education, 
if all truth is God's truth, then intellectual education 
ought to bring man to God as the source of truth, and 
itself becomes one of the indispensable agencies of 
rehgious education. It is gloriously possible for man 
to love God with his mind. 

335 



2^6 The Psychological Principles of Education 
Religion and This principle forbids relisrious education to coun- 

Science. i i i- . . i . ..- 

tenance the unwarranted distinction between scientific 
truth and religious truth. Truth is truth wherever 
found. It is the business of science to find the truth; 
it is the business of religion to claim that truth for God. 
That which science discovers it is the business of 
religion to appropriate. It is never the business of 
religion to deny scientific truth, to do so makes it 
ridiculous; it is never the business of science to deny 
that the truth is God's, to do so makes it arrogant. 
Religious education appropriates intellectual educa- 
tion as its indispensable agent in bringing the intellect 
of man to God. And the teacher of the intellect is to 
handle the truth as the word of God ; to do so is to be 
a religious teacher. Like Kepler, he must feel that a 
scientific discovery is a rethinking of the thought of 
God. 

All Beauty Sccoud, all bcauty is really a manifestation of the 

Beauty. perfection of God. He who dwells with joy on certain 

beautiful or sublime scenes of nature, when all her 
torches are aflame, when on every side is a burning 
bush, when a pillar of cloud is a shekinah for his 
pilgrim spirit, feels it must be true that the course of 
nature is the art of God. And also when in sight or 
hearing of what artist souls have first imaginatively 
created and then sensibly expressed on canvas, in 
marble, or in tones, it is easy to ascribe to them, not in 
fancy, but in fact, the divinus ajflatus. The soul gifted 
with a passion for the perfect and with a capacity for 
its expression entertains visions of the eternal. That 



The Principles of Religious Education 337 

beauty which haunts us when we have it not, and 
satisfies us, the only thing that does satisfy us, when 
we have it, is of a piece with divinity or divinity is 
unexperienced by man. Plato is voicing the con- 
sciousness of the artists of every age in his half-true 
myth: *'But of beauty, I repeat again that we saw 
her there shining in company with the celestial forms ; 
and coming to earth we find her here too, shining in 
clearness through the clearest aperture of sense." ^ 

But beauty is the highest object of the emotional The Nature 

r -1.111 r of Beauty 

experience of man, and to quicken the human sense of anaesthetic 
beauty is, we saw, the very aim of aesthetic education. Education. 
But if all beauty is God's beauty, the conclusion of 
aesthetic education is religious. In bringing pupils into 
an appreciation of beauty, we are really bringing them 
into acquaintanceship with the perfection of God as 
revealed in the works both of nature and of man. And 
the teacher of art who treats beauty as a divine com- 
munication is a religious teacher, and the aesthetic 
education he is achieving is at the same time, pari 
passu, one of the elements of religious education. 

This principle forbids us as religious teachers to Religion and 
countenance any ultimate distinction between art and 
rehgion. The impersonal beauty which art incor- 
porates and enjoys is one of the qualities of the Person 
whom religion worships. Religious education will not 
alienate art from its endeavors to bring man into rela- 
tionship with God, but will include art as one of the 
indispensable means of reaching Him who is invisible 
through the things that do appear. As the scientist 

* " Ph£edrus," 250 D, Jowett Tr. 
z 



22^ The Psychological Principles of Education 

has seen the truth, so the artist has sensed the perfect, 
and the word is nigh them, even in their retort and in 
their brush. 

All Goodness Third in the list of these fundamentals of religious 

is God's ° 

Goodness. education is the principle that all goodness is the 
goodness of God. There is none good but One, and 
whosoever is good upon the earth shares the goodness 
of the One. To recognize in any man a good character 
is to recognize something of the divine in him, and any 
man who finds it in his heart to will the good can say 
truly, thus far, " I and my Father are one." To will 
the good is to identify man's will with God's will; to 
will the evil is to oppose man's will to God's will. The 
evil that men have is their own, their goodness is God's ; 
their goodness is their own only in the sense that they 
have appropriated so much of the divine will. If 
man's goodness were all his own, and not God's, it 
would be possible for man to increase the amount of 
goodness in reality, and so to be a profitable servant 
unto God. But such a conception is untrue to the 
spiritual intuitions of the best souls who ascribe all 
the praise for what they are and do, not to themselves, 
but to God. To say that some goodness is not the 
goodness of God is to deprive God of that absoluteness 
which characterizes deity and to reduce His goodness 
thereby to a finite quantity. Thus deep intuition and 
pure reason alike unite in affirming that all goodness 
is God's goodness. 

But to quicken the sense of goodness in man, to give 
him both an intellectual discernment of right and a 



The Principles of Religious Education 339 

responsive disposition to pursue it, is, we saw, the very The Nature 

1 <• 11 • m.1 r T ♦ 1 of Goodness 

end of moral education. 1 nereiore a religious educa- and Moral 
tion, seeking to bring man into a conscious relationship Education. 
with God, must include within itself moral education 
as one of its essential elements. To make men good 
is so far forth to make them divine ; to love goodness is 
I to love a chosen way in which God manifests Himself 
to men. Goodness, the ideal of moral education and 
of all man's best endeavor, is really the revelation in 
the finite of the will of God. 

This means that we as reHerious educators must Religion and 

Morality. 

esteem more highly him whom we sometimes stigmatize 
as the moral man, that we must discontinue to coun- 
tenance any ultimate distinction between religion and 
morality. Religion is the whole of which morality is 
one of the parts, and he who possesses this part is not 
far from the kingdom of religion. Him whose will 
the moral man ignorantly performs we must declare. 
Pursue morality to the end and find God ; or, as Kant 
expresses it, religion is the recognition of the moral 
laws as the commands of God. In addition to this 
view of Kant, we have attempted also to indicate that ' 
religion is the recognition of the beautiful as the feeling 
of God, and of the true as the thought of God. Upon 
every preceding educational ideal of man religious 
education writes. Holy unto the Lord. It comes not 
to destroy science, art, and morality, but to fulfil them. 

Fourth, we are now brought to a definition of our The Concep- 

° tion of God. 

conception of God as the ideal of religious education. 
Just as religious education is the inclusive culmination 



340 The Psychological Principles of Education 

of intellectual, emotional, and volitional education, so 
we think of God definitely as the self-conscious unity 
of truth, beauty, and goodness. It is transcendently 
true that we do not completely know God, that our 
ignorance is all but total ; however, it is gloriously true 
that we do partially know God in so far as in either 
others or ourselves or nature we find an iota of 
truth, but the tattered garment of beauty, or an un- 
finished deed of goodness. God is the absolute Person 
whose thought is true, whose feeling is beautiful, whose 
will is good. He is not an abstract inaccessible being, 
nor a supernatural anthropomorphic being, but the 
inclusive personality in whose life all natural and human 
processes occur. The true immanence is not of God 
in us, but of us in God. Only so can religion shed the 
glow of the eternal upon every valuable human thing, 
only so can religious education infuse a saving spirit 
into all education, only so can our conceptions some- 
what cease to belittle both the greatness and the nearness 
of God. To deny that God is the self-conscious unity 
of truth, beauty, and goodness is fraught with fell 
consequences for religious education, — it removes any 
psychological basis for it, it removes all the means at 
our disposition for attaining it, and it removes God 
from all human experience. 

The Nature ^s intellectual education seeks the knowledge of the 

of Religion. 

truth, as emotional education seeks the feehng of 
beauty, as moral education seeks the volition of the 
good, so religious education seeks acquaintanceship 
with God. And God we now see to be the conscious- 



The Principles of Religious Education 341 

ness in which all human ideals are real. These con- 
ceptions enable us to take the next step and attempt 
to state the nature of religion. Fifth, then, as de- 
manded by the preceding conceptions and as evi- 
denced by observation of its phenomena anywhere, we 
may say, religion is the response of man as a unit 
to divinity. The unit man includes his thinking, 
his feeling, and his acting. Man's religion is his 
thought about God, his feeling toward God, and his 
conduct in relationship to God. Man's thought about 
God is responsible for mythologies, cosmologies, faith, 
doctrine, creed, belief, etc. ; his feeling toward God is 
responsible for his experiences of fear, awe, dependence, 
reverence, trust, humility, love, etc. ; and his conduct in 
relationship to God is responsible for his ritual, cere- 
monies, sacrifices, and such action as his religion 
sanctions. Thus religion is not reducible to one of 
the elements of human nature as its basis, but writes 
itself large upon human life in its integrity. The 
psychologist finds no religious section in human nature, 
— rehgion is the whole human nature divinely related. 
From no hidden recess in the human constitution is 
God excluded, from no phase of human experience is 
God eliminable, in no remote part of man's environ- 
ment, whether the cleft of the rock, the terebinth tree, 
the oaks of Mamre, the monitorial stars by night, — 
nowhere is it impossible to find Him who is All in All. 
This is not a vague pantheism, but the concretest 
theism; God is not an impersonal universal essence, 
but a personal individual consciousness, and religion 
is man's experience of God. 



342 The Psychological Principles of Education 
All Sixth, the principle follows almost as a matter of 

Education is ^^ ■, . . , . , ,. . 

ultimately course that all education is ultimately religious m 
Religious. character, that is, the ultimate object which it seeks 
and with which it deals is God. All the subjects in the 
curriculum have their ultimate origin and foundation 
in the character of God. The permanence of His 
thought makes it possible for a scientific knowledge 
of nature and man to be attained; His love for the 
perfect makes it possible for visions of beauty to flit 
across the face of nature and haunt the minds of men ; 
the goodness of His will makes it possible for a nature 
and a history to evolve in time toward some better 
thing to come. Our difficulty is that we as teachers 
do not always recognize our educational endeavors as 
finally religious in character, and that we teach our 
subjects most truly when we teach them as divine 
revelations to men, and fervently, as unto the Lord. 

All Religion Seventh, because religion includes the intellectual 

should be ° 

Educational, element in man, all religion should be educational in 
character. Religion has a truth to teach, a message 
to deliver, and intellects to train and possess. To 
omit instruction in the church is to invite both emotion- 
alism and disbelief: emotionalism which follows the 
lead of whatsoever chance ideas may be present, and 
disbelief through lack of any credible system of thought. 
In addition to inciting to good deeds and satisfying the 
heart, the church and the ministry must give definite 
instruction in righteousness. It is equally true that, in 
order to reach the whole man, religion must be other 
than educational; but it must be educational too, and 



The Principles of Religious Education 343 

this brings us to the question, What is religious educa- 
tion? 



Eighth, the great abiding aim of rehgious education The Nature 

. t 111 r 1 T • of Religious 

is the normal development of the religious nature. Education. 
Man is by nature as truly rehgious as he is intellectual, • 
or emotional, or volitional, or social. There is too, 
naturally, a rehgion of the child. As the early Chris- 
tian fathers were accustomed to say, anima naturaliter 
Christiana. Religion is thus not an artificial graft into 
human nature, it is the natural blossoming of human 
nature. Our problem is, thanks to the gospel message 
concerning babes, sucklings, and children, not to 
change a birthright of irreligion or unreligion, but to 
quicken in children their birthright of religion. A 
leader of the • Jews, like Nicodemus, an adult who is 
unacquainted with the ways of God, needs to be born 
again, that is, to be bom from above ; he needs to be 
converted and become as little children, for of such is 
the kingdom of heaven. The little children are already 
members of the kingdom, they need no miracle of 
grace to make them so, they are already converted to 
God. Our only problem, and great enough it is, is to 
see that children are not converted away from God. It 
is the gospel message; were it otherwise I should not 
have the faith and the courage to utter it. The gospel 
sets a little child, not one selected with care from the 
company of Jewish children by the roadside, but any 
little child, in the midst of the adult followers of Jesus 
as the object of their imitation. This is not to say 
that our children are now past our assistance and need 



344 The Psychological Principles of Education 

nothing from us; it only means that what they need 
from us is right development. Nor is this to say that 
when children become adolescents they are not to 
know confirmation and conversion; it is only to say 
that confirmation and conversion should follow in the 
child's life as the fruit follows the blossom. Conver- 
sion should not be a catastrophe, but as the falling of 
ripe fruit. The religious nature inborn in children 
needs only to grow, and the growth that is natural 
and vital is very gradual during the years preced- 
ing adolescence. As Dr. Haslett has shown : — 

''The ideal method is for the child to grow and 
develop through proper environment and instruction 
and training into a religious experience and life more 
and more advanced with the years and for the most 
part unconscious, and then when the golden time 
arrives, as arrive it will, naturally from about twelve 
to eighteen, there will be a normal tendency to manifest 
the religious change known as conversion publicly and 
in some more tangible and lasting form, and when sober 
judgment and reason may give meaning to the ex- 
perience." * 

In harmony with the Christian views of child life, 
religious education is thus a certain growth of the whole 
life, its growth Godward. Religious education is not 
the safe passing of an adolescent crisis ; it is a present 
process. As intellectual education develops the sense 
of truth, as aesthetic education develops the sense of 
beauty, as moral education develops the sense of good- 
ness, so religious education develops the sense of God. 

^Haslett, "Pedagogical Bible School," p. 132. 



The Principles of Religious Education 345 

Religious education is the enlargement of man's ex- 
perience of God. It includes correct teaching about 
God, cultivating right feelings toward God, and securing 
right conduct as in the presence of God. 

Ninth, the correct order in educating religiously is Action 
first the action and feeling, and then the idea and before^^^"^ 
thought. The child is primarily a doer, not a thinker ; Thought. 
he abides in the region of the concrete, not the ab- 
stract. Children can do right, and so feel rightly, 
before they can think rightly. It is through obedience 
to the commands of God, and feeling our dependence 
upon God, that children finally come to think rightly 
about God. The same principle also holds with adults ; 
whosoever is willing to do the will of God shall know 
of the doctrine. Definite, practical righteous action 
will clarify the murky, doubting atmosphere of thought ; 
the worker has faith, the indolent doubts. The trouble 
at this point is that in religious education, as in all types 
of education, we have begun with children on the 
intellectual, abstract, passive side of life rather than 
on the practical, concrete, and active side. In em- 
phasizing right thoughts about God in our religious 
teaching, we have neglected the weightier matters of 
right feelings toward God and right action in deference 
to His will. The cup of cold water, the pouring 
into wounds of oil and wine, and visiting the sick 
are more important for children, and men too, than 
answering such questions as. Who is my neighbor? 
Who shall be greatest in the kingdom ? or. Whose wife 
shall she be ? Understand me, to think correctly about 



. 34^ The Psychological Principles of Education 

the ways of God is not a negligible value, but is best 
securable through prior feeling and action. What the 
Sunday-school teacher is able to get his pupils to do 
during the week to come is more important than 
what he is able to get them to think this Sabbath 
morning. 

The Word Tenth, the problem of religious education must be 
made Flesh, solvcd by pcrsous. Only when parents and teachers 
with developed rehgious natures share a common life 
with children of undeveloped religious natures can 
there be the quickening and the growth of the religious 
life. The lower cannot lift itself of itself into the higher ; 
the higher must be both the impulse behind and the 
attraction beyond the lower. If the adults with whom 
the children associate are not religious, the children 
cannot become so; just as if there were no divine life 
within and without human life, man could not have 
become the essentially rehgious being he is. The solu- 
tion of religious questions is vague in terms of ideas, 
it is concrete in terms of some rehgious person's life. 
The interpretation of the religious life must come from 
a religious life. Every religious teacher is thus an 
incarnation to his pupils, as when the missionary faces 
a primitive people without words for the ideas of his 
• gospel, he must he his gospel. In every true religious 
teacher the word again becomes flesh, and of him any 
one of his pupils may say: — 

" All familiar things he touched, 
All common words he spoke, became to me 
Like forms and signs of a diviner world." 



The Principles of Religious Education 347 

Eleventh, we have been thinking of the beginninsjs Religious 

^ & & to Education 

of the religious education of man; it is time to think never ends. 
of its conclusion ; but here all time seems to open up 
before us, and we are able to set no limits to religious 
education. Rather, the infinite Word, God, is its 
limit. Religious education is like the mathematical 
case of a finite progression toward an infinite limit, 
always enlarging and approaching, but never there. 
Before self-consciousness children are subject to 
intangible religious influences from the nourishing 
environment of the home ; after self-consciousness, the 
progress through boyhood and girlhood, through youth 
and adolescence, through maturity and advancing age, 
is all one journey toward God, our goal. Religion is 
man's experience of God; the widening of man's 
experience of God seems as boundless as the capacity 
of man and as endless as the swift flight of years. 
Since God is our chosen haven and the infinite stream 
of time is the path of our voyage, religious education 
can never end. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. Dualism and Monism as Philosophies. 

2. Idealistic Theism as an Acceptable Philosophy. 

3. The Kingdom of Nature and Grace. 

4. The Causes of Separation of Religion and Life. 

References on the Principles of Religious Education 

Butler (and others), Principles of Religious Education. 
Coe, Education in Religion and Morals, chs. II, III, and IV. 
Coe and Starbuck, Religious Education as a Part of General 
Education, Proc, R. E. A.., 1903, pp. 44-59. 



348 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Coulter, Science as a Teacher of Morality, Proc. R. E. A., 
1905, pp. 40-46. 

Mathews, A Scientific Basis for Religious and Moral Education 
from the Standpoint of Theology, Proc. R. E. A., 1904, pp. 
115-119. 

McDowell, The Direct Influence of God upon One's Life, Proc. 
R. E. A., 1905, pp. 20-24. 

Reeder, The Psychological and Pedagogical Principles of Re- 
ligious Teaching, Proc. R. E. A.y 1904, pp. 340-344. 



CHAPTER XXX 

THE DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING OF THE RELIGIOUS 
NATURE 

In this discussion we must attempt to describe the Aim of this 

^ Discussion. 

religion of the developing individual in his different 
stages and to suggest corresponding ways of training. 
The religion of the child and youth will naturally 
concern us most, for with the religion of maturity and 
the ways of cultivating mature religious interests we 
are more famihar, though not sufficiently so.^ The 
child, the youth, the man, are large and convenient 
designations of epochs in religious development. 

Looking at our subject in the large, there are certain General 
guiding thoughts that may be profitably stated at the Principles of 
very beginning. Childhood is essentially the period of gion^^^^"^' 
muscular activity; so with the child the essential 
thing is to secure the performance of rehgious deeds. 
Youth is essentially the period of independent thinking ; 
so with the youth the essential thing is to secure an 
independent and personal religious experience and out- 
look on Hfe. This is not apart from, but in addition 
to, the religious deeds of childhood. Manhood is 
essentially the period of large achievement; so with 
the man the essential thing is to secure a consecrated 
social service. This too is something not apart from, 

^ Cf. Coe, "The Religion of a Mature Mind." 
349 



350 The Psychological Principles of Education 

but in addition to, the religious deeds of childhood and 
the personal rehgious experience of youth. And the 
guiding thought under all is that this process of religious 
development is a unity from the beginning to — there 
is no ending. It is hard to make a religious youth out 
of a child untrained religiously ; it is almost impossible 
to make a religious man out of a youth and child un- 
trained religiously. It is easy for a child religiously 
trained to become a religious youth; it is almost as 
easy for the religious youth to pass on into religious 
maturity. This progress all depends on the nature 
and efficiency of the religious and educational environ- 
ment. We must consider more in detail the nature of 
the religious needs and of the right religious training 
in each stage of development. 

Religious The practice of many people and the theory of some 

is that the religious nature of children needs simply 
to be let alone. Indifference to the higher life is the 
usual cause of the practice. The theory is held by 
the literal followers of Rousseau, who would not permit 
Emile to hear the name of God before adolescence ; by 
the defenders, whether wittingly or unwittingly, of the 
Enlightenment; and by the advocates of reason as 
giving us the heart of existence. Concerning this 
rationalistic position it is well to remember the saying 
of Goethe that existence divided by reason leaves a 
remainder. Perhaps it is through this remainder that 
the religious nature of children may be reached. 

In contrast with this position let me suggest several 
reasons why the religious nature of children should re- 



Religious Development and Training 351 

ceive attention. First, children actually possess a reli- Why not ? 

gious nature. It is not the religious nature of the adult part^of ^ ^ 

civilized man; it is primitive, childhke, in character, childhood. 
but, such as it is, it is definite, present, real. 

Second, they have this religious nature by good right, a Racial 

. . , ., (. .,.,. T-,1-. • r Inheritance. 

it IS the right of racial inheritance. Rehgion is one of 
the ways by which man has adjusted himself to his 
world, it is one of the conditions of his survival, it is 
bred in the bone of his children, like the instincts of 
fear, anger, and self-preservation. 

Third, they have this religious nature as a matter Emotional 

• n r* r T i -n i m and Active 

essentially of feelings and will, and only secondarily, in character, 
if at all, as a matter of reason. And rehgion is com- 
prehensive enough to cover these terms as well as 
rationality. Though religion is a reasonable expression 
of man's nature, it were an egregious error to identify 
reason and religion. 

Fourth, it is the business of education to develop The 

. , „ . , . . ^. ,. . Business of 

aright all inherent capacities. Given a religious nature Education. 
in children, it is not an educational option to cultivate 
or neglect it. What is elemental in human nature the 
educator must fashion. What nature and its God 
have joined together, let not the teacher put asunder. 

Fifth, it is one of the wonderful new facts that Childhood 
adolescence is Hkely to strengthen the tendencies the Adolescence. 
child brings with him. When reason does come with 
its full force into the individual life, there must be a 
background of soHd habit and good training whose 
value attests itself. Without a religious life in the years 
of childhood, the mill of reason grinds emptily in 
youth. We may feel free therefore to undertake a 



35^ The Psychological Principles of Education 

consideration of the religious development and train- 
ing of childhood. 

In For this purpose the period of childhood may be 

roughly divided into two parts, viz. early childhood, 
or infancy, from birth to about six years of age, and 
later childhood, from six to about twelve. It will be 
borne in mind with reference both to these divisions of 
time and to the characteristics of the rehgious life in- 
each period that are to follow that only average results 
are our aim, and that the next child you see will be in 
some respects exceptional. 

The Religion Under six years of age, the religious life of children 

of Early ^ o o 

Childhood, is very vague and ill-defined, as would be expected. 
They do not know much about the meaning of, nor 
show much of the presence of, such religious emotions 
as sympathy, humility, self-sacrifice, mercy, repentance, 
and forgiveness. This is nothing more than saying 
that children in their religious life are not little men 
and women. They are just children. But the im- 
portant thing to recognize is that there is a religion that 
children have, comprising the very germs from which 
all later development is to spring. The reHgion of a 
child under six consists in its love for its parents and 
other members of the family, its vague sense of de- 
pendence on them to supply its wants, its fear of the 
consequences of disobedience, its pleasure in antici- 
pating the rewards of obedience, its imagination 
peopling the dark and the woods with beings, its open- 
eyed wonder at every new phase of real experience, and 
its vague feeling of mystery, indicated in the changed 



Religious Development and Training 253 

tone of voice when it repeats or hears a prayer it does 
not understand. A mind familiar with the history of 
religion in the race would probably locate the child in 
the period of primitive animism. It is evident from 
their enumeration, incomplete as it is, that these 
characteristics contain the simple forms of many 
complex developments in mature religion. 
The relisrious training of the child under six will '^^ 

° ° Religious 

consist in being kind to him, initiating him gradually Training 
into the customs of religion, getting him to do the un- chndhood 
selfish deed of which he might not have thought him- 
self, showing pictures of children and animals, being 
consistent with rewards and penalties, securing regular 
obedience, directing the imagination to pleasurable 
objects only, exercising patience in meeting his wants, 
permitting only good things, forbidding only evil things, 
providing associations with other children, and minister- 
ing to its life out of the fulness of a religious heart. 

Some of the things mentioned in the above para- 
graphs will seem remote enough from religion as 
adults know and practise it. This is partly because we 
do not fully reaHze the unity of the conscious life, the 
interconnectedness of religion with all things else, and 
partly because religion is too detached a matter in 
most adult life. 

Passing on, the characteristics of the religious life The Religion 
in later childhood are partly the preceding ones further childhood, 
grown and partly new ones. They include such things 
as imitation of elders, the influence of suggestion, 
custom and habit, punctilious emphasis upon externals, 

2A 



354 The Psychological Principles of Education 



The 

Religious 
Training 
of Later 
Childhood. 



the recognition of law, the obedience to authority, 
symbolism, many and contradictory principles of con- 
duct, creduHty, the sense of the naturalness of miracles, 
love of the mythical and mythological, the devotion to 
form, superstition, together with premonition of deep 
religious stirrings, and the sense of an awakening soul. 
Again our historian of religion would say the child is 
in the period of primitive polytheism, myth-making, and 
ritualism. Perhaps he is right in part, but in addition 
there are the influences to be traced of ten years' life 
in a religious home. Under the influence of such a 
present potent environment much that is original in 
the child's nature is modified and redirected and 
rapidly outgrown. 

Religious training during the period of later child- 
hood will include a correct religious example, the sug- 
gesting of deeds of religious service, the formation of 
correct habits, a just law, a gentle yet firm authority, 
the implanting of a few elemental principles of conduct 
like the Golden Rule, the unviolated principle of 
veracity in one's own life, walks with the father through 
field and wood, helping the mother in the home, the 
unstinted use of the world's best stories, particularly 
those of the Old and New Testament, regularity in 
attendance upon religious service, an interested and 
reverential nature study, the teaching of simple truths 
about God, such as His presence and help at all times, 
and the careful avoidance of religious precocity. It is 
very easy to overstimulate the religious nature of 
twelve-year-old children. In this connection it is well 
to remember that Jesus at twelve represents the early 



Religious Development and Training ^SS 

Oriental adolescence, corresponding more nearly to 
fifteen with us. Before adolescence it is better to 
guide than to press the natural religious development. 
Precocity in religion as in other lines is Hkely to mean 
a weakened maturity. 

Both these descriptions of and prescriptions for the 
religion of childhood have been general and vague and 
unillustrated. Perhaps enough, however, has been said 
to indicate that the child has a religion of its own, that 
this religion is to be understood and cultivated, and 
that we understand and cultivate a child's religion best 
when we simply take it as a natural part of a natural 
child's life. The mother's knee, the mother's face, 
and the mother's love are the alphabet of every child's 
religious training. Every mother should rear her child 
as a possible saviour in his own way of his people from 
their sins. 

For our purposes the period of youth may be divided in Youth, 
into three parts, viz. early adolescence, from about 
eleven to about fourteen years of age; middle ado- 
lescence, from about fourteen to eighteen; and late 
adolescence, from about eighteen to twenty-four. It 
will always be noticed that boys are slower in develop- 
ing physically than girls. It will also be noticed that 
our divisions for this religious discussion are physio- 
logical in character, a fact of great significance in 
itself. 

Early adolescence covers the last years of the gram- The Religion 
mar school. The period is often spoken of as that Adolescence. 
of puberty. The key-word of this stage of religious 



35^ The Psychological Principles of Education I 

development is, if we may so express it, God is love, 
for, physiologically, love is god. The scientific students 
of human nature, — anthropologists, sociologists, psy- 
chologists alike, unite in affirming an intimate relation- 
ship between the social and rehgious instincts. They 
both show a love of others ; self-sacrifice ; a heightened 
sensitiveness to phenomena of nature ; a vivification of 
any act or object or experience associated with the 
object of one's affection; the expression of feeling in 
music, poetry, and rhythmic movement; alternating 
humility and exaltation; and many other analogies. 
There are other characteristics also of the religious 
development of early adolescence, among which should 
be mentioned the beginning of abstract questioning as 
a supplement to earlier concrete acting; the sense that 
rehgion has an inner meaning, that its nature is spiritual, 
though the full significance of this idea is inexhaustible 
even in maturity; and the transition is beginning, 
fraught with such future moment, from authority to 
experience. 
The The religious training appropriate for early adoles- 

Training of ccncc is preeminently social religious influences, — it is 
^^^'y the social staeje in its real initiation. The more uncon- 

Adolescence. ^ ^ 

scious the influences the better the results. No traps 
should be set, — in vain is the religious net spread 
in its sight. Natural growth is best. It is the great 
period for the first awakening of ideals. They give 
objects to budding aspirations. Hero-worship calls 
out and satisfies lofty emotions. The reading should 
be widely biographical in character. This period 
is the great opportunity of evil companionships to 



Religious Development and Training 357 

corrupt good morals; the expanding soul is safe only 
in an atmosphere of congenial, natural, wholesome 
religious associates. 

Middle adolescence practically covers the secondary J^^j^j^^^^f °" 
school period. It is the most important epoch in Adolescence. 
individual development. The whole life, physical 
and mental, is coming into its power. Whether this 
power be used or abused is the question determinative 
of the future. The religious development of this 
period is perhaps characterized by the term individ- 
uality. The sociality of early adolescence issues in 
the individuahty of middle adolescence. About indi- 
viduality as a nucleus cluster many related things, 
such as personal experience, incipient doubts, serious 
moral and religious questioning, the quickening of 
conscience, the looking for perfection and righteous- 
ness, high aspirations, and the whole outgo of the soul 
to the highest ideals. All will remember the lofty 
motto of their senior class in the high school, and the 
never to be repeated unique solemnity of the graduating 
valedictory. The most significant of all the ways in 
which the growing sense of individuality expresses 
itself is through' that definite religious awakening 
known as conversion. This is the experience which 
unites the individual and God ; it involves the thought 
of His being, the feeling of His presence, and the will 
to do His will. No description, however, is adequate 
to all cases, as their variations are multitudinous. It 
is a fact, which the psychologists ^ who have recently 

1 Cf. Hall, "Adolescence," Vol. II, ch. XIV. 



2^S The Psychological Principles of Education 



James on 
Conversion. 



The 

Religious 
Training of 
Middle 
Adolescence. 



Guiding the 
Process of 
Conversion. 



entered the field of religion practically agree upon, 
that the curve of conversion is highest between four- 
teen and eighteen, the exact age of highest curvature 
being undetermined and also unimportant, and that 
two-thirds of the conversions occur before twenty. 
For a general description of what conversion, the 
most significant personal experience of middle adoles- 
cence, is, I will quote the pictorial words of James. 
He writes: 

"Let us hereafter, in speaking of the hot place in a 
man's consciousness, the group of ideas to which he 
devotes himself, and from which he works, call it 
the habitual centre of his personal energy. It makes 
a great difference to a man whether one set of his ideas, 
or another, be the centre of his energy ; and it makes a 
great difference, as regards any set of ideas which he 
may possess, whether they become central or remain 
peripheral in him. To say that a man is ' converted ' 
means, in these terms, that religious ideas, previously 
peripheral in his consciousness, now take a central 
place, and that religious aims form the habitual centre 
of his energy." ^ 

What, then, is the rehgious training appropriate 
to middle adolescence ? Manifestly the essential thing 
is the right guiding of the process of conversion. I 
refer to conversion as a process advisedly; whatever 
it may be for the hardened adult sinner, for the adoles- 
cent it should be a process, a normal and universal 
process. In all ages and nations the adolescent youth 
has assumed by some rite the duties of responsible 

^ James, "The Varieties of Religious Experience," p. 196. 



Religious Development and Training 359 

living. He takes his place as a serious contributor to 
the best life of his tribe, his nation, his race, his fellow- 
beings. In conversion religion, in the comprehensive- 
ness which moderns attach to it, gathers up the idea 
of pubic initiations among savage tribes, and assump- 
tions of citizenship among civilized nations. It is 
an experience in the life of developing youth which 
society can neglect only at great risk. It is a process, 
however, in which no forcing should appear; imita- 
tion, suggestion, sympathy, and the use of natural 
opportunity are enough. When nature is opening 
the door of the soul, it is only necessary that we invite 
it forth. Only with the neglected, the wayward, or 
the old are exceptionally urgent means to be used, 
in which cases also exceptional phenomena may occur 
at conversion, like trances, visions, and voices. These 
are all not so much signs that God is present as that 
He has been absent.^ 

The religious training of the middle adolescence The 

, ...,,,. Religious 

does not stop at conversion, — it is only well begun, vaiue of 
The next and indispensable thing is something to do Work, 
in the world for the church. Work attaches affections. 
The idle convert is in graver danger than the uncon- 
verted idle. To-day competing interests and organiza- 
tions are winning away youths from the church, because 
the former give them occupation. The church is 
mature ; it needs also to become adolescent, that is, to 
organize its young people, not primarily for personal 
growth in grace, but for practical social service. He saves 
his soul who loses it in self-forgetful deeds for others. 

^ Cf. Davenport, "Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals." 



360 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Room for Withal, sincc this is the period of individuality, free 

Individuality. i • p 1 i 1 

place and play must be given for the development of 
individuality. Adolescent experiences must not be 
cast in adult moulds; the same spirit bestows a diver- 
sity of personal experiences. The church must make 
room for the adolescent truly converted, whatever 
enlargement in non-essential traditional positions this 
involves. In the interest of liberality we must always 
remember that every influx of nev/ spiritual life in 
the growth of the church has meant a widening at 
some point of current views. 

The Religion ^]^g rcligious development of late adolescence covers, 
Adolescence. SO far as the school is concerned, college life. The 
students who go to college are those selected by society 
for her best investments. They are a choice com- 
pany, and rapidly increasing in size, though still com- 
paratively small. The high school is still the people's 
college. In the college the budding powers of youth, 
religious and all, come into their powers. The char- 
acteristic word of the religious life of college students 
is independence. It is the age of reason, of personal 
judgment, and of thinking for oneself. Though 
imitation and suggestion are potent influences, and 
groups, chums, clubs, and fraternities are comprehen- 
sive forces, still in the secret of his own consciousness 
the college man is thinking out things for himself. 
Individual variations are more noticeable, and inde- 
pendent intellectual positions are both stated and 
defended. Opposition is keen to all unreality in reli- 
gion, to pious professions and empty forms. The 



Religious Development and Training 361 

demand of independent reason is for reality, for reality 
in the conclusions of thought, the expressions of feeling, 
and the practice of principles. Life is becoming ad- 
justed to reality in the large, to old and new knowledge, 
to vast natural processes and human undertakings, 
to the sweep of the world's movement in its unity. A 
natural part of these adjustments and r^djystments 
is doubt, the feeling of uncertainty as to what the truth 
is. Atheistic tendencies and irreligious feelings, usu- 
ally of temporary duration, appear, whose character 
is largely determined by home training and early en- 
vironment. There is an element of truth in the saying 
that of German university students one-third go to 
the devil, one- third break down, and the remaining 
third govern Europe. 

The spirit of independence in college youth demands The 

11 T • r ^ mi • • r t • r ReligioUS 

above all rehgious freedom. This is one of the gifts Training 
of the American nation to the nations of the world, ^JJ^f^ 

' Adolescence. 

it is one of the gifts of the American college to its stu- Religious 
dents. Both of these are possible through God's Freedom, 
gift of freedom to man. Freedom may be abused, 
souls may be lost, but it is elemental order of existence. 
The safeguards of freedom are instruction, sympathy, 
and love from those who bestow it. The college says 
to its students, be free, be men, God and your parents 
love you. 

The rehgious horizon of college men should be widening of 
widened by a knowledge of the history of religion and Hortzon. 
of the church, by acquaintanceship with the religious 
values wrought out by the race from the beginning 
until now, and by a study of the religious experiences 



362 The Psychological Principles of Education . 

of great men, like Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, 
and Wesley. In their light they see light. 

Practical The presentation of religion to college men should 

always be in relation to some definite, concrete, and 
practical form of social upbuilding. Nothing less 
than the religious spirit of unselfish labor for the sake 
of the Kingdom has in it adequate social redemptive 
power. The problem of modern Christianity is to 
demonstrate its power to save society, as it has already 
demonstrated its power to save individuals. The . 
college man will hear a practical call when an emo- ^ 
tional appeal is without response. In keeping here- 
with, some active form of religious work is the great 
need of college Hfe. Too often the preperception 
is given that only when they get out can they begin 
to do something. Do it now ! We are not yet far 
enough away from academic cloistered medisevalism. 

Doubts. Concerning doubt among college men, the attitude 

of repression is vain. The doubter can no more cease 
doubting than he can cease thinking. Keep on think- 
ing, and be patient with yourself meanwhile, are the 
first mottoes. Descartes is a wise teacher of many 
college youth, especially in his resolution that intellec- 
tual doubts should not disturb his moral way of life. 
The active work also forwards the student perplexed 
with doubts. Think them out, work them off, — these 
are appropriate modes of attack for the independent, 
practical college youth. In the latter part of a college 
course philosophy has its establishing word to say 
to those who, as Bacon said, drink deep of her foun- 
tains. The college teacher of philosophy may also 



Religious Development and Training ^^3 

be guide and friend. The last year of a man's college 
course should end in a WeU-Anschauung, and his last 
college thesis in philosophy should be, "My Personal 
Philosophy of Life." It is his last chance, ten to one, 
to form for himself that system of thought under which 
he begins his life-work. 

The siftings of faith in college leave a man surer and ^he One 
stronger. iThe things that are left cannot be blown 
away. The non-essentials have gone, only that the 
essentials may remain. Among these essentials should 
be his firm resolution, supported by four years of un- 
broken habit, to do the will of God as revealed to him 
in Jesus Christ. This is the tie that binds him with 
a vast host of devoted souls to do the work of God in 
the world. 

In the last analysis on this question we differ from J}^^ , 

■' ^ Naturalness 

each other not in having or not having religion, but of Religion, 
in the kind of religion we have. It is one of the in- 
alienable attributes of the human spirit, a universal 
phenomenon of man. For, as Carlyle in effect says, 
religion is whatever a man does practically believe 
concerning his vital relations to this mysterious uni- 
verse. 

The individual and typical development of religion 
through childhood and youth we have now followed, 
suggesting what seems the appropriate mode of train- 
ing. The period of manhood we must omit, save for 
the general opening remarks, as our interests are 
centred mainly in the educational years. This we are 
the less reluctant to do, because if the child and the 
youth are successfully trained religiously, the man's 



364 The Psychological Principles of Education 

future may be safely trusted. But the problem of the 
religious education of children and youth is too large 
for the school alone, especially the American school, to 
solve; the great agencies of home and church must 
also be invoked. To the mutual services of home, 
school, and church, as they forward the interests of 
reHgious education, we next come. 

Problems for Further Study 

1. The Influence of Suggestion on the Age of Conversion. 

2. The Future of the Religious Revival. 

3. The New Evangelism. 

4. The College Y. M. C. A. 



References on the Development and Training of the 
Religious Nature 

Barnes, Theological Life of a CaHfornia Child, Fed. Sem., Vol. II, 

pp. 442-448. 
Coe, Education in Religion and Morals, Part II. 
Davenport, Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals. 
Griggs, Moral Education, ch. XXV. 
Hall, Adolescence, Vol. II, ch. XIV. 
Harris, Social Culture in the Form of Education and ReHgion, 

Ed. Rev., 1905. 
James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, chs. IX and X. 
Leuba, Studies in the Psychology of Religious Phenomena, Am. 

J. of Psy., VII, 309. 
MacCunn, The Making of Character, Part II, ch. VII. 
Oppenheim, The Development of the Child, ch. VI. 
Peabody, The Religion of a College Student, Forum, June, 1901. 
Rosenkranz, The Philosophy of Education, pp. 157-179. 
Starbuck, ReHgion in General Education, Froc. R. E. A., 1904. 
Tompkins, The Philosophy of Teaching, pp. 270-275. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE HOME* 

What is the value of the home as a social institution ? Our 
What are the dangers that threaten the vitaHty of the 
American home? How may religious education con- 
serve these values and remedy these dangers? These 
are our main questions. Upon their answers hang in 
part both the efficiency of religious education and the 
spiritual progress of the people. 

We have then to think first of the value of the home The value of 

. , . . . . . - . 1 . Ml *^^^ Home. 

as a social mstitution. A series of considerations will 
serve to show us this value. To begin with, the home 
is the first in time of the great social institutions ; first J^^ ^J^'st 
in the hfe of the individual, first in the Kfe of the race. 
It is older than man's school, or occupation, or state, 
or church. Indeed these latter institutions are his- 
torically outgrowths of the home, and they can never 
escape the influence of their origin. To take one 
illustration of this historic development. In early He- 
brew days the father of the home was, ex officio, the 
teacher, the lawgiver, and the priest. ''And these words 
which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy 
heart; and thou shalt teach them dihgently unto thy 
children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in 

^ A brief outline of this discussion appears in the Proceedings of 
the Religious Education Association, 1904. 

365 



^66 The Psychological Principles of Education 

thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when 
thou liest down, and when thou risest up." The per- 
petuity of the Jewish race to-day, without a country, is 
due to this same Deuteronomic home. We must omit 
other examples of the beginnings of civilization in the 
home. Seeing that it is the first and the fount of all 
social organizations, we may accord to it also the rank 
of first in importance, and agree with Spurgeon when he 
said, "Home is the grandest of all institutions." 

The Social Second, the value of the home appears also in the 
Unit. .,.,..,, . ^ . 

consideration that it is the elementary unit of society. 

Only in impracticable Utopias, like Plato's Republic, 

has the home been surrendered. As Lady Mary 

Wortley Montagu observed, there are ultimately but 

two classes in society, men and women, and these 

twain are one flesh in every home. In the family is 

found the natural and minimal unit of the human race. 

The unit of society is not the individual, who receives 

and transmits his life from and to others — society is 

rather molecular than atomic in structure; nor is the 

unit of society the school, for it receives pupils from 

the home and keeps them but the maturing section of 

their lives; nor is it business, however engrossing, for 

from the home men go forth to work and to the home 

they return to rest ; nor is it the state, Plato to the 

contrary, for to be a citizen presupposes the parent and 

the child ; nor is it the church, as certain religious sects 

who have sacrificed the home, like the Shakers, and 

thereby come to grief, will illustrate. About the home 

as centre all the interests of man's life are organized; 

it is the central luminary about which its four planets, 



Religious Education in the Home 367 

school, vocation, state, and church, revolve; in it is 
found society reduced to its lowest terms; of all the 
social institutions it is the nearest to self-sufficiency. 

Third, in the home centre all the elements of man- The Centre 

. . ... of Man- 

makmg, viz. heredity, environment, and will. The making. 
home is the only institution that has legitimate control 
of the element of heredity, and heredity is the greatest 
third of a man's life. The home is but one of the many 
institutions that environ man, but, coming during the 
most susceptible years of childhood, its influence is 
prepotent. As to the element of will, the habits 
fashioned in youth in the home are regularly the gar- 
ments of the soul's perduring life. If one principle of 
human destiny has more universality than another, it 
is this, the home makes the man. One might think of 
Lincoln as an exception, but Lincoln said, ''All that I 
am or hope to be I owe to my mother." Control the 
influences of heredity, environment, and will in the 
home, and you all but control the man. The parents 
are the makers of a people. The teachers cannot with- 
out the home make a man ; they can only develop the 
potential man that the home sends. The business 
world without the home cannot make a man; it only 
gives him an opportunity to declare what manner of 
man he is. The state without the home cannot make 
a man ; it only returns his deed upon the doer. Nor 
can even the church without the home make a man; 
it only sends Heaven's appeal to his heart. These 
other agencies are indispensable indeed in modern 
society for man-making, but still they are secondary. 
Fourth, the home is the temple of the love of 



368 The Psychological Principles of Education 

The Temple humanity, the sacred sanctuary of what Drummond 

of Man's •' ^ 

Love. famously called "the greatest thing in the world." 

The Apostle of love declares, "God is love. He that 
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and He in him." 
The home, especially in its procreative function, 
concretes God's life in the world ; it is a call to men to 
exercise divine gifts ; it is a true Shekinah ; it is a shelter 
of the Eternal in the heart of the temporal. Even when 
there is no room for God in the busy marts and inns of 
life, the home is still his dweUing-place. All love is of 
God. All the externals of life are laid aside in the 
home. Here, if at all, man meets God face to face. 
Marriage is a rehgious as well as civic rite. Destroy 
the sanctity of the home, substitute therefor the con- 
venience or the pleasure of man, and that moral chaos 
ensues which betokens the departure of God. It is 
interesting to observe that all our names best descriptive 
of the ideal relationships of religion are home-names, — 
God is our Father, we are brethren one of another, and 
the whole race is one family. Long ago a lover of 
wisdom wrote, "Love is the eldest and noblest and 
mightiest of the gods, and the chiefest author and 
giver of happiness and virtue, in life and after death." ^ 

The Main Fifth, it docs uot Surprise us after these things that 

Agency of ^ ^ . 

Moral and the homc should be considered the main agency of 
Education i^o^al and rehgious education. And so it is, for it has 
the heart of the child. As no other institution does or 
can, the home has the heart of the child. Without it, 
let every institution combine to do its work, and the 
child is still an orphan, bereft, in heart and character, 

1 Plato, "Symposium," 180 A, Jowett Tr. 



Religious Education in the Home 369 

of a mother's love and a father's tender care. From 
the moral and religious life of the home the children 
pass into wider relationships carrying the same spirit; 
"from kith to kind" is the natural way. "It is not 
wonderful that the family has been regarded, as in 
moral education, the most indispensable of all in- 
struments," writes the English author of a treatise on 
moral education.^ Nothing less than this is also true 
of the service of the home to religious education, for 
the ideas and the deeds of the home mainly constitute 
our capacity for appreciating divine things. 

These things then serve to show us the unsearchable 
value of the home as a social institution. Let us look 
first to our individual homes, whence with more profit 
we may turn to the homes of others. Our second 
question was, what are the dangers that threaten the 
vitality of the American home? 

There are dangers threatening the home and they Dangers to 

1 . • 1 1 . r , the Home. 

loom larger on the horizon than the size of a man s 
hand. Some of these dangers may not strike our in- 
dividual homes directly, but they do indirectly so far 
as our sons and daughters under their influence lose 
the sense of value that attaches to the home. Let me 
enumerate a few of these obvious dangers. 

The American heiress and the foreign noble exchange Titles for 
a fortune and a title. The girl has money which she 
did not earn and wants a title which she has not. The 
noble has a title which, perhaps, he did not earn and 
wants a fortune which he has not. These two agree to 

1 MacCunn, "The Making of Character," p. 87. 



370 The Psychological Principles of Education 



A Butt of 
Ridicule. 



Divorce. 



supply each the other's want, and they become man and 
wife. PubHcity is given the exchange, the minds of 
the youth are forced to consider wrong ideals of mar- 
riage, many other rich girls are made to stumble, and 
the holy estate of matrimony is brought into disrepute. 
It is slight tribute to the ability of the American rich 
to distinguish between the symbols and the substance 
of true nobihty that foreign continental bureaus flourish 
whose aim is to send impoverished nobles to our coun- 
try wife-hunting. 

Again, home-life is being made ridiculous by the 
comic press and the pleasantry columns of the news- 
papers. There is humor that maketh glad the heart 
of man, there is wit that makes his face to shine, and 
there is satire and false cynicism that eat out the values 
of Hfe. To laugh with the home is one thing, to laugh 
at it is another. A young generation is now being 
nourished on laughter at the home. They cannot thus 
bring to their own future homes a whole-hearted respect 
and devotion. Parents must have a care that nothing 
that defileth the home or the thought of the home 
should enter into the minds of youth, or entering, that 
its influence be offset. 

Again, something that needs but bare mention here, 
for the public conscience is already being widely 
aroused to this danger, viz. the growing evil of divorce. 
What God has joined together men are putting asunder, 
and for other than the scriptural or justifiable ground. 
What constitutes justifiable ground other than the 
scriptural cause is a perplexing question too large for 
treatment here. But the present ease with which 



Religious Education in the Home 371 

divorce may be secured encourages hasty assumption 
of the marriage vows, increases infidelity thereto, tends 
to legitimize free love, makes children worse than 
orphans, and brings a divine ordinance into human 
contempt. 
Again the home is being too much forsaken by our The Woman 

° ° ^ ^ out of the 

women. Under no force of adverse circumstance, Home, 
girls are leaving the home-roof to become independent 
wage-earners. Under no stress of personal necessity 
or social demand, our women are increasingly entering 
the professions. Instead of teaching their own sons at 
home how to vote, some are preferring to become 
voters themselves. Instead of the club existing for the 
home as it should, in some cases the home is existing 
for the club. In these respects some of our women 
are without justification escaping those limitations of 
the home which really condition their highest life; 
thus they leave undone those things which women alone 
can do, and attempt to do those things which men alone 
should do. Disguise it as she may, a woman's natural 
and ultimate satisfaction is found only in being the 
queen of the household. How much better for her to 
keep the springs of the water of Hfe pure in the home 
than to attempt to filter its muddy currents in the 
streets ! I speak here, of course, only concerning cases 
of preference; where necessity puts the woman out of 
the home the problem has merged with the wider 
general social problem. 

But the man is the greater recreant. If the home The Man 

^ out of the 

is bemg too much forsaken by the woman, it is being Home. 
too much neglected by the man. Some women do not 



37^ The Psychological Principles of Education 

live up to their home privileges; most men do not. 
What is the situation? Necessity takes the father 
from the home the working hours of the day; and 
preference, too often, the remaining. To many Ameri- 
can men, home is little else than the place where they 
sleep. The children are left to the care of the mother ; 
the father goes hastily in the morning to the office, and in 
the evening, by appointment, to some meeting or the club. 
Business and masculine pleasures keep him too rushed 
to be a husband to his wife and a father to his children. 
The American home is not the least of the sufferers 
from the American haste and practical materialism. 
Decay of ^^fj q1\ thcsc dangers combined lead to the most 

Family ° 

Religion. omiuous of all, viz. the decadence of family rehgion. 
At this point we touch our immediate subject and pre- 
pare the way for our last question. The father is no 
longer the teacher, nor the priest, nor even the law- 
■ giver. Family worship is almost an extinct custom; 
everybody is aware of it but nothing seems to be arising 
in its stead. Children are growing up without knowl- 
edge of the Bible and unaccustomed to hearing the 
sound of their father's voice in prayer, or in the giving 
of thanks in the breaking of bread. Particularly is the 
lack of anything like definite and systematic religious 
instruction in the home to be deplored. Professor Coe 
has written, ''There is reason to fear that most parents 
give utterly inadequate attention to religious training 
within the family. In the minds of many parents, too, 
there is uncertainty and confusion as to what should 
be done, or taught, or required, or expected." ^ The 

* " Religion of a Mature Mind," p. 323. 



Religious Education in the Home 373 

religious spirit is not dead in home life, for it is uni- 
versal and cannot die, but its old family forms are 
going, and new ones must be had to take their place. 
These then are the dangers that threaten the Ameri- 
can home and their consideration brings us to our third 
question, to religious education in the home as the safe- 
guard of its inestimable values and the remedy for its 
grave dangers. 

Religious education in the home is our safeguard and ^figio^s 

*^ ° Education in 

our remedy. Our message is to parents ; theirs is the the Home 
brunt of the problem. I propose reHgious education gu^rd^nd 
in the home as no cure-all alone, without need for Remedy, 
help from the general uplifting forces of society, of the 
church in particular, but as the great thing needful 
to-day, without which other social and redemptive 
agencies are impeded in their work, and with which 
the home may be made the very nursery of civilization. 
I propose religious education, for, when true, it brings 
God our Saviour and Christ His Revealer into the 
thought and life of men, and no reality less than God 
is the ultimate solution of our human problems. And 
I propose religious education in the home, for the home 
is the most effective teacher of religion, and the home 
cannot justly, as it is to-day tempted to do, throw off 
this burden. This last point we must exemplify. 

The burden of reHgious education cannot be thrown Religious 
by the home upon the public school, though the public unavoidable 
school has its distinct duty to rehgion; these points Duty of the 
will occupy us in the succeeding chapter. 

The burden of religious education cannot be thrown 



374 The Psychological Principles of Education 

by the home upon the Sunday School. In its modern 
inception by Robert Raikes the Sunday School repre- 
sents the best effort of the church to supplement that 
religious instruction which children were not sufficiently 
receiving in the home. The Sunday School movement 
has succeeded wonderfully in the work of religious 
instruction and represents one of the most beneficent 
social forces set free in the nineteenth century. The 
temptation is strong in the home to trust to the Sunday 
School entirely the work of religious instruction. In 
several respects, however, such trust is fatuous. 
Without home foundations, the Sunday School cannot 
avail. Even if it were effective alone, the time at the 
disposal of the Sunday School is not adequate for that 
systematic and continuous religious instruction needed 
by growing children. And it must always be remem- 
bered that the parent is the natural and most influential 
reUgious teacher of the child. The Sunday School must 
remain, as it began, to supplement, but it can never be 
trusted to supplant the home in religious instruction. 

Nor can the burden of religious education be thrown 
by the home upon the pulpit. Without the back- 
ground of the home, the pulpit can do but little. Let 
the pastor use his sermon for the teaching of religious 
truth, as well as for the proclamation of the gospel, 
never so well, and the people will remain largely in 
ignorance of Christian truth, for though they hear the 
word, they do not give it back again, without which 
there is no real learning. Pastors are often surprised 
at the inabihty of parishioners of many years' standing 
to state, and apparently to grasp, the simplest religious 



Religious Education in the Home 375 

truths. The teaching function of the ministry, and 
there is such, not to mention the heralding of good 
tidings, is effective on a large scale only when it can 
use, and does not have to supply, the results of home 
training. In the chapter following the next we must 
return to the service of the church in religious educa- 
tion. Meanwhile the American home must bear its 
own burden of rehgious education, however its burden 
may be shared by other educational agencies. How 
shall this burden be borne ? We cannot go backward 
to good old things ; we must go forward to better new 
things. What things? 

It is our purpose now to enumerate a few of those ^^^ Forces 
forces which the modem Christian American home 
must represent. First and foremost it must represent 
an enhghtened choice of life partners. The permanent Right Choice 
happiness of the home and the rapidest improvement partners. 
of the human race rest here. Heredity is the greatest 
single force in life. It represents the natural expression 
of the divine law of visiting the iniquities of the fathers 
unto the third and fourth generation and showing 
mercy unto thousands. Not a Platonic reorganization 
of human society, nor statute laws requiring physical 
examination for candidates for matrimony, but only 
the first founders of the home can utiHze aright the 
foundational law of heredity. To be well bom, that 
is the first thing. This tmth parents must instil into 
the minds and hearts of their adolescent children. 

In the second place, the well- bom child must grow The 
up in a religious atmosphere in the home. As air fills ^t^^osphere. 



376 The Psychological Principles of Education 

the lungs, so must religion the home. Children must 
breathe in the religious atmosphere every moment of 
every day. All home situations must be permeated by 
the sane and practical spirit of religion. The words 
spoken, the deeds done, as well as the prayers said, 
hymns sung, and Scriptures read, must be in the Spirit 
of God. The new religion in the home must be a new 
form of life. The sweet hour of prayer must become 
the sweet day of prayer, the formal hymn of praise 
must become the constant life of service, and the oc- 
casional Scripture reading must be annotated with the 
daily deed. Keep the old forms if we can and will, 
but the new life is imperative. Thus is provided a 
constant religious environment in which the good 
heredity may thrive. 
Religious And third, the home must resume the work of definite 

rehgious instruction of children. The strength of the 
father and the tenderness of the mother must go into 
the work of imparting Christian truth. Best of all 
teachers can these tv/o secure that the children assimi- 
late religious truth with feelings and will as well as 
with intellect, that there be receptive hearts as v/ell as 
minds, that souls grow in the light that they receive. 
One of the sacred purposes cherished by parenthood 
should be the definite and systematic rehgious instruc- 
tion of childhood. The child is to be fed, to be clothed, 
to be sent to school, to be loved ; he is also to be in- 
structed in religion. Why will parents spend their 
money on their children for things that satisfy not, 
and withhold from them the religious culture that 
satisfieth? These earthly things we ought to do, and 



Religious Education in the Home 377 

not leave undone the heavenly things. Parents must 
incorporate into their conception of their duty to their 
children that of an adequate religious instruction. 
Children have the right to be brought up by their 
parents in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 

By these three ways will the home get possession of 
the influences of heredity, environment, and will for the 
good of children and in the interest of practical religion. 
For the parent reading these pages, in whom perhaps 
the resolution is shaping itself for a stricter following 
of rehgious duty in the home, questions at once arise 
concerning the content, method, and aim of religious 
instruction in the home, each of which we may briefly 
consider. 

What is the minimum content of the reHsrious in- The Content 

" of Religious 

struction parents should give their children? Not less instruction 
than these few great things. The presence at all times '"^ ^^"^ ^'''^''• 
of a Heavenly Father who loves children, who wants 
children to love Him, and who is grieved but not 
angered when they do wrong. 

The sign of the real presence of the Heavenly Father 
in the conscious sense of right, in the natural love of 
truth, in all enjoyment of beautiful things, and in the 
pleasures of childhood. 

The value of the Hfe of children, or of any one, 
depends upon the loving of all those things that the 
Father loves, and growing daily into conformity with 
His will for us. 

Our love to Him can best be shown by loving our 
brothers and sisters, our parents and relatives, our 



378 The Psychological Principles of Education 

friends and neighbors, our companions and playmates, 
and everybody everywhere. 

The Hfe among men approved unto God as worthy 
all acceptation and shewing forth the nature of God 
is Jesus, the lover and saviour of children and men. 

And when a member of the household, or a friend, 
falls on sleep, the thought that these still live in another 
and larger room in the Father's house. 

Thus simply and naturally may the great truths of 
the Christian rehgion, God, freedom, and immortality, 
the incarnation and the atonement, liberty, equahty, 
and fraternity, grow into and out of the child's life in 
the home. Such simple great views of life as these a 
multitude of parents in the land, professing no Christian 
affihation, might impart to their trusting children. 

The Method What shall be the method of such nurture and 

of Religious ... 

Instruction admonition ? Not less than these four thmgs. First, 

in the Home, ^^^j^ reHgious truth must be taught in a way suitable 
to the comprehension of the particular child. No one 
quite so well as a parent knows how children, even of 
the same family, differ from each other. The truth 
must be presented to each one according to his capacity 

Adjusted to reccivc it. If this is done, if the child has really 
understood the rehgious idea, then, according to the 
principle of ideo-motor action, the truth will tend to 
act itself out spontaneously in word and deed. 

Actifn'^^ Second, the child must do rehgious things, whether 

at first he understands their full import or not. As 
Pascal observed, // faut s^ahUir. In the interest of 
the reHgious Hfe of the child, better his doing one 



Religious Education in the Home 379 

religious deed than learning many religious truths. 
Flowers to the sick, dividing good things with others, 
surrendering one's toys to visitors, kindness to the aged, 
sympathy for an afflicted child, or even the more formal 
things of bowing in prayer, early church attendance 
where there are pretty windows, good music, and words 
for children in the sermon, abstinence from certain 
games on Sunday, — these motor responses in religious 
ways form the muscular habits which are the physical 
foundation of the higher Hfe. Sensory impressions 
without motor responses are the sounding brass and 
the tinkling cymbal in all education, pubhc and private, 
from Socrates who said that knowledge is virtue, from 
Cicero who said that to think is to live, even to the 
modem stuffing of the minds of children with informa- 
tion. There must be doing in addition to knowing, 
particularly children must learn to know religion by 
doing what it prompts. 

Third, the home must be supplied with the best Religious 
rehgious literature of human experience. Bible stories 
for young children, Bible history for older children, 
the lives of the saints, the confessions of St. Augustine, 
the history of the church, the growth of Christian mis- 
sions, — all ending in simple apprehension of the essen- 
tial elements of the Christian gospel. The home needs 
really a curriculum in rehgion for reading and study, 
under parental supervision and direction, in harmony 
with that provided by the Sunday School, and according 
to the growing interests of children. Not burdensome 
but deHghtful will the pursuit of such a curriculum prove, 
with parents as teachers and their children as pupils. 



380 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Religious And fourth, parents must be in all things lovely and 

of good report what they want their children to become. 
The boy in the end does as father does, not as father 
says. The mother's practice in the end, not her words, 
wins the girl. Social heredity is as real an influence as 
physical heredity. Imitation is the great law of grow- 
ing Hfe. Children must find the Hves of parents an- 
other incarnation of the truth of God. 

Religious ideas, religious action, religious literature, 
religious models, — these at least are essential methods 
in an adequate religious education of children in the 
home. 

The Aim of It remains only to refer to the aim of rehgious educa- 
Education in tion in the home. It is practical ; it is the cultivation 
the Home. Qf ^^ie habit of religion in Hfe ; it is to give the dis- 
position of the child that acquaintanceship with reli- 
gious Hfe that later will control the man; it is the 
growth of children in God toward God. This aim 
we find in the realization of those words of Mr. Moody, 
*'We might train them that they shall be converted so 
early they can't tell when they were converted;" or 
in those earlier words of Horace Bushnell, recovered to 
us by Professor Coe, "A child is to grow up a Christian 
and never know himself as being otherwise." Such an 
aim is to join with Jesus Christ in the enthronement of 
little children as religious beings when he spoke the 
words that emancipate childhood, "Suffer Httle chil- 
dren to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such 
is the kingdom of heaven." 
Thus, all told, will rehgious education in the home 



I Religious Education in the Home 381 

! 

become the guaranty of the value of the home as a 

social institution, and a remedy for its present im- 
minent dangers. Begin now, parents, this happy and 
profitable labor ; seize the chances, teachers and minis- 
ters, to deliver this message to parents. It will remain 
the message of the hour until it is heeded. In the words 
of Dr. Henry Ware, ''To Adam, Paradise was home. 
To the good among his descendants, home is paradise." 

References on Religious Education in the Home 

Briggs, School, College, and Character, I. 
Coe, Education in ReHgion and Morals, ch. XVI. 
Collar and Crook, School Management and Methods of In- 
struction, ch. I. 
Button, Social Phases of Education, I. 
Griggs, Moral Education, XVII. 
Hall, The Place of Formal Instruction in ReHgious and Moral 

Education in the Home, Proc. R. E. A., 1905. 
Hanus, A Modern School, V. 
Henderson, The Part of the Home in Religious Education, Proc. 

R. E. A., 1905. 
Landrith, The Religious Opportunity of the Home, Proc. 

R. E. A., 1904. 
MacCunn, The Making of Character, Part II, ch. IV. 
Mark, Individuality and the Moral Aim in American Education, 

ch. X. 
Stewart, Religious and Moral Education through the Home, 

Proc. R. E. A., 1903. 
Wells, The Parent Problem, School Review, 1905. 
Winchester, Literature as a Means of Religious Education in 

the Home, Proc. R. E. A., 1904. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 

In touching this subject, a vein of negative attitude 
will appear for the first time in our discussions. This 
seems to me to be necessary at present in view of the 
conditions that confront us. Along with the negative 
attitude, however, I have defended certain positive 
positions which will, to a degree, I trust, atone for 
the always unwelcome element of polemics, and at 
the same time these positive positions seem to me the 
very best way of attaining the results which the people 
I oppose desire. After the preceding discussions, 
nobody will accuse me of indifference to the cause 
of religious education. But the zeal that defends the 
cause of religious education in America to-day must 
be discriminating and sympathetic, especially where 
the interests of our public school system are involved. 
The two questions I wish to discuss are religious teach- 
ing and the use of the Bible in the pubhc schools.^ 

The first question is. Ought there to be any religious 
teaching in the public schools? 

In introducing the discussion of this question, I wish 

^ Cf. my papers on these subjects, respectively in Proceedings 
Religious Education Association^ 1904, Biblical Worlds January, 1906. 
Also my "Philosophy of Education," pp. 123-127. 
382 



Religious Education in the Public School 383 
to draw a distinction that really exists between "reli- ^ 

Distinction. 

gious teaching" and religion. Religious teaching has 
for its object the knowledge on the part of the pupils 
of certain religious truths. Religion itself is a life in 
God. The one is formal and intellectual; the other 
is real and vital. It is possible to teach religious truths 
without being rehgious and without the pupils becom- 
ing religious. It is possible to be religious and to 
have one's pupils become religious without teaching 
religious truths. Those who favor religious teaching 
in the public schools may be favoring really nothing 
more than the intellectualizing of the religious expe- 
rience of other persons. Those who oppose religious 
teaching in the public schools may be favoring really 
the healthy growth of unanalyzed religious sentiment 
in the pupils themselves. 

With this distinction in mind, I wish to defend, Thesis, 
as the answer to our question, this thesis : what the 
public schools under our form of government need 
is not teachers of religion, but religious teachers; is 
not religious instruction, but religious living; is not 
"religious teaching," but teaching religiously. 

This thesis, I am free to confess, is one to which I 
have come after having held, and actually advocated, 
the contradictory one that the public school curric- 
ulum should teach religion, with the Bible as the text. 
This latter proposition now seems to me insuperably 
difficult to practise. And I will attempt to state my 
reasons for change of front. 

To show, first, our public schools do not need "reli- 



3 84 The Psychological Principles of Education 



The 

Historical 

Argument. 



The Gov- 
ernmental 
Argument. 



gious teaching." There is an historical reason. A 
nation must respect its history as men respect their 
parents. During the first half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, when the religious sects began to multiply, the 
teaching of religion was taken out of the public schools. 
This was done that no religious sect might propagate 
its tenets through the school influence, that the birth- 
right of liberty of conscience of Americans be not in- 
fringed, that the cause of a sound and various learning 
suffer not at the hands of denominationalism, and 
that society might have in its midst at least one unify- 
ing educative agency. These historical reasons are 
still potent today. 

In the case of America there is a governmental 
reason for the absence of anything hke religious instruc- 
tion in our public schools. So far as this question is 
concerned, there are two principles supporting our 
form of government, viz. the separation of church 
and state, and the pubhc education of all youth. To 
these two principles our government is committed by 
its successful, though as yet short, national life; upon 
them our national experience has put the seal of ap- 
proval. Now, to introduce religious teaching into the 
public schools would contradict the principle of the 
separation of church and state. On the other hand, 
to deny the right to exist of schools that do not teach 
religion is to contradict the principle of public education 
for all American youth. These two principles are 
two of the pillars of state upholding America; to pull 
down either of them will precipitate a national disaster. 

There is also a social reason. The democracy 



Religious Education in the Public School 385 

would sufifer by the attempt to teach reHdon in the The Social 

, . . Argument. 

public schools in that certain elements m society would 
at once withdraw their support from a government 
no longer religiously free. To-day the pubhc school 
is the great preserver of that homogeneity in society 
necessary to a democracy. It would cease to be so 
the moment it began to teach religion. It would not 
subserve the best interests of the democracy for all 
Catholics to be withdrawn from the public schools 
and taught in the parochial schools. This would 
occur if any form of Protestantism were taught in the 
public schools, and justifiably so, for it is not right 
in a rehgiously free country to tax a CathoHc father 
to teach his son Protestant doctrine. Neither would 
it be right to tax a Protestant father to teach his son 
some other form of Protestant doctrine than his own. 
Needless is it to refer to the attitude of the great un- 
churched elements in America. Under the stress 
of formal rehgious teaching, the public school could 
no longer preserve the unity of American society. 
Indeed, the pubHc school system itself could survive 
only in weakened form, if at all, these disintegrating 
forces. A pubhc school system can teach religion and 
survive only where there is a state religion to teach. 

There is also a natural reason for not teaching re- The Natural 

,. . , . . Argument. 

ligious truths in the public schools. There is no avail- 
able text embodying the essential universal truths of 
religious experience. There is a physics, a chemistry, 
and a biology, a mathematics, a literature, and a 
history; but there is not similarly a theology. His- 
tory is most hke theology in presenting a variety of 

2C 



386 The Psychological Principles of Education 

interpretations, but the interest of the public is not 
quick in the dissensions of historical opinion as in those 
of religious opinion. We have not, nor are we likely to 
have, an available text in religion. To reduce religion 
to its lowest terms and teach the residuum as religion 
will satisfy no religious man and no religious sect. To 
teach the religious truths of any sect is to dissatisfy 
naturally the others. Select any religious truth, or any 
body of religious truths that one will, attempt to teach 
it, and the majority of the community will not sup- 
port you. Some of the majority will say, you are teach- 
ing too much; some of the majority will say, you are 
teaching too little. This is true of no other subject to 
the degree in which it is true of religion. In teaching 
religious truths the majority rule does not hold; there 
is no majority in the community that want any one 
religious system taught. But the public school is the 
servant of all. In the face of these difficulties I dare 
not name any body of religious teaching that can find 
a place in the public school. 
The There is a religious reason, also. It is really in the 

Religious . r t • 1 1 • i 

Argument. mtcrcst 01 religion that many people are wanting the 
public school to teach religion. No one seems to be 
urging the teaching of religion on the ground of its 
educational value, though it has supreme educational 
value, nor on the ground that the curriculum needs 
further enrichment, nor on the ground that pupils are 
not sufficiently occupied. Nothing practically but an 
interest in promoting religion is at the basis of the de- 
mand for the teaching of religion in the public schools. 
Now, the public school can promote the interests of 



Solution. 



Religious Education in the Public School 387 

religion in a more excellent way than by attempting to 
teach it, that is, by living it. Here we reach the second 
part of our thesis: our pubHc schools simply need 
religious teachers. 

There is no occasion to seek far for a definition of ^he 

Religious 

the rehgious teacher. We say enough when we say Teacher the 
the religious teacher is one who is conscious of God in 
his work. Neither is there need of much argument to 
prove that a religious teacher would serve the interests 
of religion better in American public schools than a 
teacher of religion. Perhaps no observer of the effects 
of teaching religion in state schools in Germany and 
England would prefer to see those systems adopted in 
America; some such observers come away extremists, 
ready to exclude religious teaching from other institu- 
tions than the public school. The gist of the argument 
may be stated thus : religious teaching in state schools 
usually ends in secularizing religion; the rehgious 
teacher in state schools would tend to make all things 
sacred. In writing on religious teaching in the home 
and church, instead of in the pubHc school, it is right 
to stress the necessity of combining the two, which is 
the ideal. Meanwhile, we may safely leave the interests 
of rehgion in the public schools in the keeping of reli- 
gious teachers, simply urging upon school boards the 
duty, without applying any doctrinal tests whatever, of 
selecting those teachers whose lives convey the religious 
stimulus to the young lives about them. Where Hfe 
thus gives life the religious touch it will not be neces- 
sary that lips teach the religious truth. 



M* 



The Public 
School an 
Actual 
Religious 
Influence. 



The 

Importance 
of Religion. 



388 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Far be it from me to imply that the public schools 
do not already have rehgious teachers. To call the 
public school system of America "godless" is as untrue 
as it is unkind; it is to repeat the very old mistake of 
identifying the letter with the spirit. On the contrary, 
the public school system is a tremendous religious in- 
fluence in the life of the nation. It has not single- 
handed regenerated human society, as some of its 
critics have seemed to expect of it, but it has presented 
us with the spectacle of a consecrated body of men, 
and particularly women, unsurpassed during the 
centuries for genuine and unselfish social service. By 
its fruits, college presidents say,^ it shows itself not in- 
ferior to private and church schools in developing 
worthy character. Despite his critics the public school 
teacher is not to think he is doing less than his duty 
because he is not teaching religion; his only care is 
that he teach religiously. 

By two things may we steady ourselves for the re- 
ligious performance of our schoolroom task. In the 
first place, the public school teacher, as every teacher 
of the world's youth, needs to recognize that religion is 
the most important element in human life. In religion 
man comes into relation with God, the most real Being. 
Nothing is so important to man as the right recognition 
of this relation. To enter fully into this relationship 
is to disclose the widest human possibilities, to open up 
the deepest springs of human nature, and to save the 
total individual and social life. In being religious, 
that is, in practising the presence of God in the work of 

^ The Outlook, Vol. 75, No. 11. 



Religious Education in the Public School 389 

the schoolroom, the American teacher may feel that he 
is what his pupils ought to become. 

In the second place, it strengthens the teacher to TheUni- 

1 , , . .11-1 1 versalityof 

remember that he and his pupils alike are by nature Religion. 
reHgious. To seek the Great Companion, the Ideal 
Person, to feel at one with Him, to think His thoughts, — 
these are universal human aspirations. The youth of 
the land in whom the springs of life are welling up are 
unavoidably religious. Human nature is built on the 
religious basis. All nations and all normal men are 
religious, that is, are conscious of an Invisible Presence. 
Hence the teacher may be sure that if he lets his life 
show forth the Divine Presence, he will thereby 
quicken a response in the life of the pupil. In being 
religious at their work, American teachers may feel 
that, under the laws of imitation and social suggestion, 
their pupils will develop their religious natures. 

Thus is defended our thesis, not the teacher of re- General 
ligion but the religious teacher in the American public concerning 
school. This thesis is not new ; many others have been Religious 

•' Teaching in 

driven by the logic of the situation to a similar con- the Public 
I elusion. In illustration let me quote the following 
words from Dr. Behrends, spoken over two decades 
ago, and defended by him on historical, patriotic, and 
moral grounds: "The main position I take then is 
that while religious teaching is not the business of the 
pubHc school, the school is false to life, and thereby 
false to itself, if it is pervaded by the spirit of indiffer- 
ence or of hostility to religion. ImpHcitly, in tone, 
temper, and trend, though not expHcitly, by the intro- 
duction of text-books and formal instruction, our public 



School. 



390 The Psychological Principles of Education 

schools should be definitely and positively religious and 
Christian." ' 

The Use of xhe second question that was to occupy us is, What 

the Bible in , ^ , . , , , . . ■, ■,. 

the Public usc may be made of the Bible m the public schools ? 

Schools. ^g ^ matter of fact the usage is far from uniform in 
different states, or even in different communities of 
the same state, being governed largely by local senti- 
ment. In the majority of states the usage is left to the 
discretion of the school authorities, the law saying 
nothing concerning it. The following summary ^ indi- 
cates the situation : '*The Bible is read and the Lord's 
Prayer repeated very generally in the schools of Maine, 
New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Colum- 
bia, Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina, 
Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Texas, Arkansas, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Wyo- 
ming, and Colorado. 

"There are laws or rulings in the following states 
forbidding the exclusion of the Bible from schools: 
West Virginia, Georgia, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, 
Iowa, North and South Dakota, and New York. In 
several states the law excuses pupils from taking part 
in religious exercises where the parents object. 

" In a number of states Bible reading without sectarian 
instruction or any note or comment is provided for, 

^ "What Place, if Any, is Religion entitled to in our System of 
Public Education?" A paper read before the American Institute of 
Instruction, at Saratoga, July 13, 1882, by A. J. F. Behrends. 

^ Texas School Journal, March, 1903. 



Religious Education in the Public School 391 

including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Min- 
nesota, and North and South Dakota. The decisions 
as to whether the reading of the Bible is sectarian in- 
struction are neither clear nor consistent, and even in 
states where decisions have been made the question is 
left largely open. 

'' The use of the Bible in schools is prohibited, more or 
less positively, in Louisiana, California, Utah, Washing- 
ton, Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon." 

First, let us distinguish between the two uses' — and The Two 
there are but two — for which the Bible is being ad- uses. 
vocated in the public schools. The Bible may be read 
in an opening religious exercise, without note or com- 
ment; this is the devotional use. Or it may form 
a basis of instruction for courses in (i) religion, 
(2) morals, (3) biblical literature, (4) biblical history; 
this is the academic use. Perhaps these four constitute 
the only academic uses for which the Bible has been 
urged, but for these four in various combinations the 
demands are many and insistent. 

Now the thesis I should like to defend is, the place of The Thesis, 
the Bible in the public schools is devotional, not aca- 
demic. This thesis has both many advocates and 
many opponents. It is opposed alike by those loyal 
and zealous Christian people who want both the de- 
votional and the academic use, by those who, in the 
interest of human culture, want at least the academic 
use, and by the extreme opponents who want neither. 
My answer to the opponents will be suggested in 
defence of the proposed thesis. 



392 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Defence of 
the Devo- 
tional Use. 



A Present 

Need. 



There are two parts to the thesis; positively, the 
Bible should have a devotional use in the public schools ; 
negatively, it should not have an academic use. 

The Bible should have a devotional use in the public 
schools. This means to read it well in an opening 
religious exercise, preferably with the school responding, 
and to let it thus read be its own message of inspiration 
to the heart of the school. All religious- minded people 
whatsoever will appreciate the value of such a use. It 
introduces the sense of the eternal into things temporal, 
it nourishes the immanent spiritual Hfe of the individual 
pupil and of the social whole, it transfigures human 
things with a divine light, and it makes souls strong 
in the confidence of a present God. Such a devotional 
use is not instruction in religious truth ; it is the quick- 
ening of religious life. In a Christian democracy 
whose large majority believes that God is redeeming 
human society, the devotional reading in the public 
schools, where future citizens are making, of the Book 
that reveals His Nature and Presence is logical, equi- 
table, and desirable. 

To unite American Christian people, of whatsoever 
faith and order, in the support of such use of the Bible 
in the public schools is a great and pressing present 
need, to serve which need minor differences may well 
be merged. To forward this unity, books of bibhcal 
selections for reading in schools are in preparation, 
whose simply religious nature, it is not too much to 
hope, will unite all, and offend none, of the bodies of 
Christian believers. Meanwhile, it would be gratify- 
ing to see the Douay Version used where the majority 



Religious Education in the Public School 393 

of the pupils are Catholic, the King James Version 
where the majority are Protestant, and the Old Testa- 
ment where the majority are Jews. 

To this devotional use of the Bible there are but two Objections 

. Considered. 

objections, viz. (i) a few states forbid it by law, and 
(2) it does not satisfy the various small, but audible, 
classes of freethinkers. In reply to the first, it is 
essential to recognize the great and, in our day, sur- 
passing influence of public opinion. Once all the 
Christian voices are united in the cry, "The Bible for 
Devotion in the Schools," the laws can be unmade as 
easily as they were made. 

The freethinker, also, is to be recognized in a 
Christian way. The devotional exercise in the public 
schools, not simply out of concession to him, but in 
keeping with the very genius of religion, will not be 
compulsory for children whose parents object. It will 
have only the support of the spirit made free by the 
Son. No freethinker can consistently object to a free 
religious exercise. In the maintenance of such an 
exercise, the Christian patrons must heartily cooperate 
with the school authorities. 

This, then, is the positive part of our thesis, which 
would plant the simply religious life of the Bible in 
the very heart of the public school. Now for the 
second position, and perhaps the more difficult one to 
defend, though I feel convinced it is equally defensible. 
I should like to carry on with me the many who so 
far find themselves in practical agreement. 

The Bible should not have an academic use in the 



394 The Psychological Principles of Education 



The Aca- 
demic Use 
opposed. 



Biblical 
Literature. 



public schools. That is, it should not be used as a 
basis for courses in instruction in Hterature, history, 
morals, or religion. My argument here will take this 
form: biblical literature, history, and morals cannot 
be truly taught without teaching religious truths, 
and American public schools ought not to under- 
take to teach religious truths. To take the subjects 
in order. 

Literature is great only when it is the vesture of 
great truths ; it is debased and hollow when its forms 
engross attention to the exclusion of its content. The 
surpassing greatness of biblical Hterature is in its 
union of religious truth and outward expression. There- 
fore to teach biblical literature truly is to teach the 
religious truth it expresses. One can as little teach 
Richard III without reference to ambition as Job 
without reference to the presence of evil in righteous 
lives. This latter reference will be either formal, 
making literature an empty shell, or it will attempt to 
suggest the answer to the problem which the drama 
discusses, making literature real and vital. But the 
answer is a religious answer, and the religious sects 
disagree as to what that answer is, particularly when 
biblical scholars are inclined to eliminate the last 
chapters as not a part of the original solution. This 
is sufficient to indicate how real teaching of the Bible 
as literature will involve necessarily the teaching of 
religious truth as the teacher apprehends it, with all 
the consequent controversies with which religious his- 
tory is filled. 

Similarly, to teach biblical history will necessarily 



Religious Education in the Public School 395 

lead to teaching religious truths ; for biblical history is History, 
religious history. It is an unpractical abstraction to 
attempt to separate academic Israelitish history from 
religious Israelitish history. To omit Jehovah is to 
fail to explain Israel; to include Jehovah is to teach 
religious positions concerning which the sects of Judaism 
and Christianity are at great variance. Besides, there 
is an almost insuperable difficulty at present in making 
out the curriculum in biblical history. The great 
majority of Christian people and the modern scholars 
are not in agreement as to the sense in which the books 
of Moses, for example, are historical, or as to whether 
Daniel was a prophet. 

The case is not different in teaching morals from the Morals. 
Bible. The bibHcal basis and sanction of moraHty is 
religion. Jehovah is there presented as the Author of 
the Decalogue. Modern ethical writers are practically 
agreed that rehgion is the basis of morals. To teach 
morals truly, then, is to teach religious truths con- 
cerning man's relation to God. 

We reach this conclusion, then, that any academic 
use of the Bible whatever, short of superficial, necessi- 
tates the teaching of rehgious truths. Now, then, our 
issue is narrowed to the simple question. Why not teach 
religious truths? and as such is identical with our first 
question, which has already received a negative answer. 

And our total conclusion is, for American public Conclusions, 
schools, not teachers of religion, but religious teachers, 
and not the academic, but the devotional, use of the 
Bible, — a conclusion which, in accord with both true 
Americanism and pure religion, excludes the killing 



39^ The Psychological Principles of Education 

letter of religious teaching to make room for the free 
spirit of religious living. 

Problems for Further Study. 

1. The English Education Act. 

2. The Disestablishment of the Church in France. 

3. Effects of Religious Instruction in German Schools. 

References on Religious Instruction and the Use of the 
Bible in the Public School 

Bell, Religious Teaching in Secondary Schools. 

Bishop, The Moral Effects of Bible Reading and the Lord's 

Prayer in PubHc Schools, Proc. R. E. A., 1904, pp. 280-284. 
Carr and Thurber, Religious and Moral Education through the 

Public Schools, Proc. R. E. A., 1903, pp. 124-147. 
Coe, Education in Religion and Morals, ch. XX. 
Coe, The Religious Spirit in the Secondary School, School Review^ 

October, 1905. 
Doan, Coe, Tompkins, O'Shea, What May the Public High 

School do for the Moral and Religious Training of its 

Pupils? Problems of Secondary Education, Northwestern 

University. 
Harris, Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1897-1898, 

chs. XXXI and XXXII. 
Harris, The Separation of the Church from the Public School, 

Proc. N. E. A., 1903, pp. 351-360. 
Hervey, ReHgious and Moral Teaching in the Public Elementary 

School, Proc. R. E. A., 1904, pp. 31 1-3 19. 
Starbuck and Arnold, How far, and How, can the Foundations 

of Religion be laid in the Common Schools? Proc. R, E. A., 

1905, pp. 245-252. 
Tompkins, Philosophy of Teaching, pp. 270 et seq. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN THE CHURCH 

A CAREFUL recent historian of education chronicles Monroe 

quoted. 

in his concluding chapter the following concerning 
religious education: ''The complete secularization of 
schools has led to the complete exclusion of religious 
elements in public education, and the very general 
exclusion of the study or even the use of the Bible and 
all religious literature. Thus the material that a few 
generations ago furnished the sole content of elementary 
education is now entirely excluded and a problem of 
very great importance — that of religious education — 
is presented. Little or no attempt at solution is being 
made and little interest aroused. . . . One most im- 
portant phase of education is left to the Church and 
the home, neither of which is doing much to meet the 
demand." ^ 

What the home and school should do toward the 
solution of this paramount and neglected problem we 
have now attempted to consider, and it remains to 
view the subject from the standpoint of the third of 
the institutions particularly responsible for religious 
education, viz. the church. It will give definiteness to Outline 
our discussion to consider in succession, first, the prin- Discussion, 
ciple upon which religious education in the church rests ; 
^ Monroe, " Text-Book in the History of Education," p. 750. 
397 



Education in 
the Church. 



398 The Psychological Principles of Education 

second, the educational agencies of the church; and 
third, some of these agencies in particular, especially 
the Sunday- school. 

The Religious education in the church goes back for its 

Religious foundation to the principle that all religion in its 
organized work is, or ought to be, educational in 
character, that is, should include among the many 
different means it uses to reach its ends also the element 
of instruction, or instillation of ideas. This is not to 
identify religion with education ; least of all to imagine 
that the religion of the educated is one thing and of 
the uneducated another. The principle simply affirms 
that in the bringing up of children and in the spread 
of religion through society the church must avail itself 
of educational means as a part of its work. If the 
principle is true, the church to-day is capable of con- 
Defence of ^ siderable improvement in following its lead. That the 
principle is true, three reasons may be proposed, viz. 
the historical, the psychological, and the social. 

Historically, the founder of Christianity was teacher 
as well as preacher, and the church throughout the ages, 
with varying emphasis, has insisted upon the element of 
religious instruction as a part of its effort in behalf of 
men. The ideas of Christ and the teaching of the 
church have been prepotent agencies in the advance- 
ment of the kingdom. The church has often been 
narrow in its attitude toward general and compre- 
hensive learning, but that there should be learning in 
rehgious matters on the part of the young it has always 
maintained. 



the Principle. 



Religious Education in the Church 399 

Psychologically, the instillation of ideas is necessary 
to provide nuclei about which rehgious feehng may 
gather and ends toward which rehgious practicaHty 
may aim. To eliminate right ideas from consciousness 
is to give free course to emotionaHsm and to make 
effortful activities aimless. The religiously taught in- 
dividual has both support for feehng and ends for 
action. 

Sociologically, the teaching function of the church is 
necessary to the fulfilment of the mission of the church. 
Most simply stated, this mission is to bring men indi- 
vidually and socially into that unity with God which 
Jesus enjoyed. Many things sometimes stated as the 
prime mission of the church are corollaries of this 
account of its function, such as, the right settlement of 
social problems, the unification of society in a grand 
interest comprehensive of their individual pursuits, the 
proclamation of the will of God, etc. In order to fulfil 
its mission and bring men into the sense of unity with 
God that Jesus enjoyed, a ministry of ideas on the part 
of the church is necessary. Ideas interpret to us the 
Hfe of Jesus, ideas bear His message through the years, 
ideas bring His mind to men. It will go without say- 
ing that ideas are not a sufficient means wherewith 
the church may attain its goal, but it needs to be said 
that ideas are an essential part of any sufficient means. 
If numerous, broad, and generous ideas had been more 
prominent in the work of the church, there had been 
less dogmatism, intolerance, imitation, suggestion, and 
loss of individual self-control under revival influences. 
In view of these historical, psychological, and socio- 



400 The Psychological Principles of Education 

logical considerations, we may confidently expect in- 
creasing emphasis on the educational side of the work 
of the church, both in its new evangelism and in its 
social and missionary activities. 

The For improved rehgious education in the church there 

Agencies of is hardly need of new educational agencies but only of 
the Church. ^ better use of existing ones. When we enumerate the 
existing educational agencies of the church, we may be 
surprised at their number and scope. Not that any 
one of these agencies exists solely for educational pur- 
poses, but that they each and all admit of being wisely 
used in the spread of information and ideas. They 
include first of all the pulpit, together with the church 
service and the silent influence of church interiors. 
Then the Sunday School, the educational agency of 
greatest opportunity that the church possesses. Then 
the mid-week meeting, the great unused privilege of 
the people for study and self-expression. Then the 
numerous young people's societies with their meetings 
and programmes. Then the libraries of church and Sun- 
day School, so rapidly passing from a narrow pietistic 
to a general literary character. And the religious press, 
not second to any in moulding public opinion, one of 
whose pubHcations at least should be a weekly visitant 
in every rehgious home. Private church schools, whose 
great need is to develop self-control in pupils so closely 
guarded. Denominational colleges, marching west- 
ward with American civilization, advancing and con- 
serving human interests. Theological seminaries, 
whose curricula in one generation have become almost 



Religious Education in the Church 401 

as wide as human need. And, most instructive of all 
to home churches, mission schools and missionaries, 
who have learned the efficiency, indeed the necessity, 
of using educational means in presenting the gospel to 
other peoples. This vast array of instruments at the 
educational service of the church indicates that the 
organization is ample ; what is needed is its utilization. 

In the space of this chapter it is not possible for us 
to consider separately and in detail each of these 
agencies; rather I will select three from the Hst that 
appear to me particularly to need to have stressed 
their potential educational element, viz. the pulpit, the 
Sunday School, and the mid-week meeting. 

The head and heart of the educational work of the '^^^ 

11-1 • . o Educational 

church IS the mmister. Sooner or later all the educa- work of the 
tional movements of his individual church are inspired ^^'^^s*^^- 
and directed by him. In conference with his fellow- 
ministers the educational policy of his branch of the 
Christian church is determined. Within the circle of 
his immediate influence, his first business is to organize 
the educational work of his church in the interest of 
economy and efficiency. The work that is being done, 
and any new work to be inaugurated, must include the 
educational element for efficiency, but there must be 
no duplication. Like the president of a college, he 
has general supervision of his educational world. 
Further, in his individual work in the pulpit, the teach- 
ing function must appear both in matter and in manner ; 
in matter something true and instructive provocative of 
meditation on the part of his congregation ; in manner, 



402 The Psychological Principles of Education 

something for children and youth as well as for adults 
must appear in the sermon. He will probably find it 
better to have an educational element running through 
all his sermons than to give an occasional lecture or ad- 
dress in the endeavor to keep his people fairly abreast of 
the estabhshed rehgious thought of the day. Also he will 
probably find it better to remember children and young 
people in all his sermons rather than to have an occa- 
sional sermon for them. To preach an occasional 
sermon to children or young people is to lead them to 
suppose that the usual sermon is not for them. Oc- 
casionalism of any kind may make other times appear 
insipid by contrast. Again, it may fall to the lot of 
the minister, as the most capable man, to lead the 
weekly training class of the Sunday School teachers. 
In general the minister must be a dynamo of ideas to 
innervate and enlighten the Hfe about him at every 
touch he gives it. 
The Sunday The Sunday School is the one institution in Ameri- 
can life whose avowed purpose is to teach religious 
truth. Other institutions, like the home, do so in- 
cidentally ; the Sunday School does so principally. Its 
idea is the union of the religion of the church with the 
teaching of the school. Its subject-matter is religion, 
this it takes from the church; its method is teaching, 
this it takes from the school. Of all subject-matters 
religion is both the most important and the worst 
taught; most important because it brings man into 
relation with the most real Being, worst taught per- 
haps both because least understood and requiring most 
from the teacher. The opportunity confronting the 



Religious Education in the Church 403 

Sunday School is unique among educational institu- 
tions, for it has it within its power to combine the 
best available methods with the most important sub- 
ject-matter. For this reason this agency of religious 
education possessed by the church must receive our 
main consideration. 

What is the aim of the Sunday School ? It has just '^^^ ^^^ o^ 

•^ •'the Sunday 

been intimated that its aim is primarily educational, school. 
The normal development of the religious nature through 
teaching aright the truths of God, — this is the essential 
aim of the Sunday School. These truths are taught 
both to growing and to grown minds. Few are too 
young to begin to learn, none are too old to learn, the 
deep things of the Spirit. We need to get and keep it 
clearly in mind that this institution is really a school. 
Whether in future, for the sake of more dignified asso- 
ciations, its name is changed to the "Bible School," the 
"Church School," the "School of Religion," or retains 
its present time-honored form, a school it is and must 
remain. The sooner it adjusts itself to this primary 
educational aim, the better will be forwarded that reli- 
gious education which is the duty of the church to 
provide for young and old alike. In this day of tran- 
sition from old to new forms of faith, it is imperative 
that the rising generation, through information, in- 
struction, and study, acquire definite religious ideas. 
Otherwise the thought element in religion will be 
absent a generation hence. The might of this institu- 
tion is as that of a sleeping giant. 

There are certain genuine though secondary aims of Secondary 
the Sunday School that should not be put forward to 



404 The Psychological Principles of Education 

the first place, and whose fulfilment will come naturally 
as the school hews to its main line of broad religious 
education. To the educational aim, the catechetical 
aim of securing memoriter answers to set questions is 
secondary; the teacher is not a catechist. Children 
need to memorize more Scripture than they do, but 
the predominant presence of this secondary aim has 
aHenated the sympathy of many an adolescent, par- 
ticularly if he were attending the day school with its 
vital methods at the same time. To the educational 
aim, the homiletical aim of giving sermonettes to the 
class is secondary; the teacher is not a preacher. 
The predominant presence of this aim is particularly 
distasteful to those minds, and they are legion, whose 
response is greater as the presentation of duty is in- 
direct and suggestive. To the educational aim, even 
the evangeHstic aim of conversion is secondary; the 
teacher is not a revivahst. "Decision Day" is well, but 
it must come as the shooting up of the blade, not as the 
plucking up of roots. It were better named *' Fruition 
Day." In attaining its primary aim of normal religious 
development through broad instruction in righteous- 
ness, conversion is secured by the Sunday School as the 
significant middle stage of growth whose first stage is 
found in childhood and whose last stage crowns maturity. 
The Needs of To realize adequately its broad educational aim, the 
School. Sunday School stands in vital need of a number of 

things. These things constitute the ideal toward which 
we work; their absence at present is not an excuse for 
despair, nor even ground for discouragement, but a 
stimulus to labor. 



Religious Education in the Church 405 
The first is the need just hinted at above, viz. the The Religion 

... 1 M 1 1 1 • of Children 

recognition that a child has, or may have, a genuine to be Recog- 
reHgious Hfe of its own, which needs not so much to be "^^^'^• 
given to him asdeveloped within him. 

The second is a threefold need that follows as an Grading. 
application of the psychological doctrine of appercep- 
tion to the Sunday School, viz. grade the pupils, grade 
the lessons, and grade the teachers. The grading of 
pupils is their grouping not so much according to size 
and age as the stage of their individual religious de- 
velopment. The grading of lessons is the adjustment 
of material taught to the stage of development of the 
class to be taught, and should at least include the four 
divisions of kindergarten, elementary, secondary, and 
adult. The grading of teachers, or of the method of 
teaching, is to secure a just regard in presenting the 
lesson for the capacity of the class to comprehend. 

The third need is an adequate curriculum; to in- An Adequate 

. . . . , Curriculum. 

elude m addition to a systematic presentation of the 
Bible, courses in Hebrew and Jewish history ; the times 
of Jesus; the biographies of the church fathers, saints, 
and martyrs; church history; the history of doctrine; 
the growth of missions; ethics; and the religions of 
the world. Only on some such broad foundation in 
knowledge as this, can the church meet its obligation 
to educate the people in religion. The church is no 
temporary institution; religion is no evanescent 
phenomenon; both belong with the verities; even a 
superficial view of them requires both books and years. 
Suitable books covering these subjects need to be written 
by scholars, and then carefully mastered by teachers. 



4o6 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Working 
Teachers. 



Adequate 
Time. 



Improved 
Discipline. 



The fourth need is a company of teachers who are 
willing to work and a leader for them. As already sug- 
gested, the pastor may have to lead, and direct, and 
conduct the teachers' meeting. If there be but one per- 
son in the midst whom the spirit of truth leads, the 
whole accomplishment is easy. Once the zeal of dis- 
covery of the greatest things flashes f rom^ heart to heart, 
quickly there is a body of equipped and ready teachers, 
the dearest element of whose reward is that they are 
rendering a free service. 

The fifth need is adequate time for instruction in the 
Sunday School. This question it is now necessary to 
face seriously. Half an hour a week on Sunday is 
ridiculously insuflicient for such great tasks. It will 
not do to take time allotted to the five busy days of 
the public school, which has neither spare time nor 
unimportant subjects. Perhaps we shall soon decide 
that the opening and closing exercises of the school 
occupy an amount of time beyond their due in com- 
parison with the teaching period. Perhaps we shall in 
time decide to ask the parents to send their children to 
the churches Saturday forenoon for religious instruction. 

And a sixth need, felt by many ofiicers and teachers 
of the Sunday School, is an improvement in disciphne. 
The problem here is similar to the one in the public 
school, and some of the following observations are 
appHcable to both.^ 

What is discipline ? It is the art of securing and 

^ The remarks on discipline were my contribution, with some 
changes, to a symposium on the subject in The Pilgrim Teacher, 
March, 1904. 



Religious Education in the Church 407 

maintaining order. In its first intent discipline is treat- Nature of 
ment suited to a disciple. Under discipline the scholar ^^^'^^ 
becomes the disciple of the school of which he is a 
member. In becoming a member he imphcitly as- 
sumes the obligation to respect the laws of the school. 
Only through obedience to those laws can the school 
maintain itself, and so only can the pupil justify his 
continuance in the school. The art of discipline im- 
pHes thus the removal of bad motives and habits lead- 
ing to disobedience and the substitution of good motives 
and habits leading to obedience to the school's economy. 
Manifestly, disciphne deahng with the motives to con- 
duct stands second in importance only to the teaching 
function of the Sunday School. 

What is the purpose of disciphne in the Sunday ^^iscMhie^ 
School? It is threefold. First, to secure that quiet 
and orderly procedure in the movement of the whole 
school that permits good and effective work on the 
part of all. Second, to develop that respect for right- 
eous authority, without which the all-preserving habit 
of obedience to law is impossible. And third, to culti- 
vate that power of self-control which keeps the individ- 
ual true and character strong in solitude and in society. 

How may the discipline of our Sunday Schools be 
improved ? 

First. Every school ouffht to move according to a Suggestions 

. . . . for improving 

definite, continuous, though flexible order of exercises, Discipline, 
which gives ample time to all essentails, while expressly 
excluding time-consuming, patience-destroying non- 
essentials, Hke reminiscences from visitors. 

Second. Through proper contrasts between song, 



4o8 The Psychological Principles of Education 

recital of lessons, orderly movement of classes, and quiet 
thought, every pupil should be kept continuously and 
happily occupied. 

Third. The system of prizes and penalties, un- 
desirable necessities in dealing with all young life, 
should appeal only to permanent, and not to passing, 
human motives. A prize should be a surprise, and not 
an incentive. It should emphasize the pleasure con- 
sequent upon faithful work, and not be the end to 
which work is the means. A penalty is not the teacher's 
infliction but the return of the deed on the doer. The 
Sunday School needs to adopt toward the unruly a more 
stringent attitude of private appeal, private reprimand, 
probation and, all these failing, final dropping from the 
company of disciples, as Jesus at last sent Judas away. 
Dr. Blackall said at the Chicago Convention of the 
Religious Education Association: "A sentimental 
notion prevails too generally that a disturber of the 
school must be retained and his evil deeds tolerated 
or condoned at all hazards, in the hope of his ultimate 
reclamation. The vital interests of the nine, or even 
of the ninety-and-nine, are often sacrificed for the good 
that may be gained to the one who is in fault. In no 
other department of moral or religious or secular effort 
is such a course pursued." 

Fourth. Teachers should be selected, so far as 
possible, who have managing as well as teaching 
qualities. Among the good managing quahties of 
teachers may be mentioned tact, common sense, skill 
and attractive physical presence, the Socratic art of 
questioning, sympathy, and self-command. 



Religious Education in the Church 409 
From the long list of educational agencies of the '^^^ 

° . 1 1 -I 1 Mid-week 

church let me select one more for special, though brief, Meeting, 
mention, viz. the mid-week meeting. The customary 
slow dying rate of these meetings can be quickened to 
a Hving pace, and in a few churches this has been done, 
through right adjustment to the communities in which 
they are held. These meetings are the great and 
unused opportunity for reHgious people to express 
themselves. Any religious community is doing some 
religious thinking ; any community whatsoever has its 
mid-week rehgious needs. These meetings should have 
the twofold purpose of satisfying religious needs for 
prayer, meditation, and song, and of providing the 
medium of expression for religious information, ideas, 
and experience. This latter purpose is truly educa- 
tional in character. 

In order for the educational part of the purpose of 
the meeting to be attained, several things are necessary. 
The meeting is to bring to self-expression the people 
rather than the pastor. Its programmes on pertinent 
rehgious topics must be definitely planned in advance. 
The persons to speak must be selected sufficiently in 
advance of the meeting to allow for special preparation. 
The meeting should be held in a comfortable and at- 
tractive place, and should be short, preferably within 
an hour. Confessions of personal faith on the hving 
topics of religious thought will bless both those who 
speak and those who hear. People will come to these 
meetings when they want to come ; and they will want 
to come when they get something. Through such 
sharing of religious thought and experience religious 



41 o The Psychological Principles of Education 

people will educate each other in the great things of 
God. 

The story of religious education in the church can- 
not be all told. By selecting for special mention the 
three conspicuous examples considered above, I have 
tried to emphasize the place of education in the church. 
As Professor Coe puts it, '' Education in religion must 
be the chief means of saving the world." ^ Those who 
think he has made his statement too strong must ponder 
those older words, "Go ye into all the world and preach 
the gospel to every creature, teaching them to observe 
all things whatsoever I have commanded you." 

References on Religious Education in the Church 

Briggs, Theological Education and Its Needs, Forum, Jan. 
1892. 

Burton and Mathews, Principles and Ideals for the Sunday- 
school. 

Coe, Education in ReHgion and Morals, chs. XVII, XVIII, XXI. 

Doane, ''The Educational Work of the Christian Church," in 
Principles of Religioys Education. 

Button, Social Phases of Education, pp. 169 et seq. 

Eliot, Educational Reform, IV. 

Fitch, Educational Aims and Methods, XIII. 

Haslett, The Pedagogical Bible School. 

King, Personal and Ideal Elements in Education, pp. 105 et seq. 

Parsons, "Professional Education," in Education in the United 
States, Vol. II, pp. 22-30 (Butler, Ed.). 

Proc. R. E. A., passim. 

^ Coe, "Education in Religion and Morals," p. 395. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE TEXT-BOOK OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

There will be no doubt in any reader's mind as to 
what this text-book is. Not that there are no other 
texts in religious education, for religious education 
must draw inspiration and seek instruction from the 
history of the church, the history of missions, ethics, 
practical sociology, and other sources. But the text 
without equal for religious education, the inspirational 
centre of all other studies that develop the religious 
nature of man, is and will remain the Christian's 
Bible. 

It is both tempting and easy in discussing such a The Purpose 
familiar and important theme to multiply the weighty Discussion, 
opinions of the great in descriptive eulogy of what the 
Bible means for present and future man. These 
commendations, however, would not serve our specific 
purpose of showing the adaptability of the Bible to the 
needs of religious education. Unless our purpose was 
thus specific, there would be no excuse for one writing 
on this theme who brings no more special scholarship 
to it than does the present writer. 

Four points will serve to outline our discussion: Outline 
certam sources of general mterest m the Bible, its Discussion, 
characteristics as Hterature, certain sources of spe- 
cial interest in the Bible, and its characteristics as 

411 



412 The Psychological Principles of Education 

''a pedagogical masterpiece." The first point is intro- 
ductory to the main theme, viz. the adaptabihty of the 
Bible to the purposes of religious education. 



Sources of 
General In- 
terest in the 
Bible. 



Model of 
Style. 



There are three sources of general interest in the 
English Bible : it is a model of English prose, it contains 
indispensable culture material, and it tells us about 
Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible is a model of English 
prose. Its potent influence may be traced on men of 
letters and statesmen like Ruskin, Gladstone, Webster, 
Lincoln, and Reed. The orations of Moses are com- 
parable to any that Demosthenes or Cicero can show. 
Those who know best are most ready to tell us that the 
King James Version is our best English. Mr. Edmund 
Gosse writes to the London Bible Society : — 

" It would be impertinent for me to praise the English 
Bible, and needless to dwell upon its value as a model 
of noble language. But since you offer me this op- 
portunity, I should like to insist on the importance to 
those who are ambitious to write well of reading the 
Bible aloud. It is a book the beauty of which appeals 
largely to the ear. By one of those almost miraculous 
chances which attended upon the birth of this incom- 
parable version, each different part of it seems to have 
fallen to a man appropriately endowed for that frag- 
ment of the task. The gospels, for instance, vibrate 
with the tender and thrilling melody of stringed instru- 
ments; in the narrations of the Old Testament and in 
the Psalms we find a wider orchestra, and the silver 
trumpet predominates. When young men, therefore, 
ask me for advice in the formation of a prose style, I 



The Text- Book of Religious Education 413 

have no counsel for them except this: read aloud a 
portion of the Old and another of the New Testament 
as often as you possibly can." 

Again, the Bible contains indispensable material for Culture, 
purposes of general culture. Without a knowledge of 
its contents, the reader of the EngHsh poets, from Chaucer 
to Browning, finds them partially uninteUigible. The 
same is true of the American poets. The lawyer of 
culture must know Moses as well as Blackstone. The 
teacher of culture must learn from Jesus as well as 
Socrates. The man of culture must know something 
of the men of Israel, beginning with Amos, who framed 
for the race the conception of a moral Governor of the 
universe, a conception without which neither a mono- 
theistic religion nor a philosophy of history is possible. 
The best of modern scholarship goes into the study of 
the Bible and the things connected with it even re- 
motely, while concerning it more volumes appear than 
on any other of our great classical literatures. Presi- 
dent Hall observes, ''No race ever flourished without 
its classics or Bible, as the pabulum for its higher 
humanistic life." 

And, again, the Bible contains the source material of J®^"^- 
the life of Jesus, the central figure of our world from any 
point of view. More people to-day trust in the name 
of Jesus for personal and social salvation than in any 
other ; in a broad sense of the term. Christians number 
about one-third of the population of the globe. Upon 
the life and death of Jesus is founded the rehgion of 
the West, the religion of the nations holding the balance 
of power in our little world. An abstract intelligence, 



414 The Psychological Principles of Education 

devoid of interest in the welfare of man, and without a 
heart, but with the eyes of the understanding opened, 
would desire to look into the book chronicling the events 
in the Hfe of Jesus. 

These three things, then, its English, its culture 
value, and its record of Jesus, are sources of our general 
interest in the Bible. There are countless others, but 
these are enough to prevent the Bible ever being neg- 
lected by those who love the best things, and we rehearse 
together these commonplaces of our thought because 
they have such uncommon values. 



The Charac- 
teristics of 
the Bible as 
Literature. 



Compre- 
hensiveness. 



Excellence. 



The Bible is not so much a book as a collection of 
books, a literature. Its characteristics as literature 
include, among many others, at least the four follow- 
ing: comprehensiveness, excellence, power, and per- 
manence. The comprehensiveness of biblical litera- 
ture is shown by the period of time its composition 
covers, from almost a thousand years B.C. to about a 
hundred years a.d. No other single Western literature 
has had such a long development. Its comprehensive- 
ness as literature is also shown by the fact that it in- 
cludes models of practically all the known forms of 
literature, except, as some one has observed, the modern 
newspaper editorial. Here are poetry and prose; the 
lyric, the drama, the epic; the proverb, the story, the 
parable, the oration, the epistle, biography, and prayer ; 
also war- songs, laments, and enigmas. The literary 
activity of no other race has surpassed in variety that of 
Israel. 

A number of quahties combine to indicate the ex- 



The Text-Book of Religious Education 415 

cellence of this Kterature. It has naturahiess, sim- 
pHcity, touches of reahsm, love of nature, and an 
invigorating moral tone. It combines a practical 
optimism with a high ideahsm. It recognizes the evil 
in men as they are and depicts the good they ought to 
realize. All the moods of the human soul are here 
reflected, its darker doubt and despair and pessimism 
as well as its brighter hope and joy and peace. And 
through all the changes of time the faith of the biblical 
writers ventures to affirm a supreme and good Will 
enacting its larger purposes. 

Using the distinction made famous by De Quincey, Power, 
this is a literature of power rather than information. 
It is neither a history nor a science, but a religious ex- 
perience. One is truest to its spirit, not when he argues 
concerning its inspiration, but when he is inspired by it 
to noble service. It calls men not to argumentation, 
but to action. For this reason it has wrought itself, 
not only into the individual, but also into the social and 
national life. In an address before the Long Island 
Bible Society in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt, then Vice- 
President, used this language: ''Every thinking man, 
when he thinks, realizes, what a very large number of 
people tend to forget, that the teachings of the Bible 
are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic 
and social Hf e that it would be literally — I do not 
mean figuratively, I mean literally — impossible for 
us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these 
teachings were removed. We would lose almost all 
the standards by which we now judge both pubhc and 
private morals; all the standards toward which we, 



4i6 The Psychological Principles of Education 



Permanence. 



with more or less of resolution, strive to raise our- 
selves." 

The literature of the Bible has the quality of per- 
manence. This is because of the good news for man 
it conveys. Already it is the personal book of more 
souls than any other, and is read in more tongues than 
any other. Recording the highest reach of rehgious 
experience in Jesus, the Bible is bound up with all the 
future religious progress of the race. Its evangel, too, 
is carried by a literary form that stands the test of 
all literature that abides, viz. universal appreciation. 
These four, then, its comprehensiveness, excellence, 
power, and permanence, serve to indicate the char- 
acteristics of the Bible as Hterature. 



Sources of 
Special 
Interest in 
the Bible. 



The Child's 
Book. 



Approaching still nearer our subject, we come to con- 
sider certain sources of special interest in the Bible. 
Thinking of the stages in the development of the indi- 
vidual, we find the Bible makes a unique appeal to 
each stage. It is the book of children, of youth, and 
of men. We will consider each of these three stages 
separately and in succession. 

The Bible is the child's book. For in it are children, 
and talking animals, and moving narration, and dra- 
matic action, and vivid imagination. In it, too, is the 
story, the best vehicle of truth for the mind of children. 
Here are the lad Isaac, the boy Joseph, the young 
David, and the child Jesus; here are Miriam and the 
Syrian maid; stories whose beauty and simplicity will 
never cease to attract, even to the thousandth repetition, 
so long as the world retains its youth and remembers 



The Text-Book of Religious Education 417 

its children. The Bible puts the child where Jesus 
did, in the midst of apostles of God. The problem is 
all one of selection; only give the Bible a chance to 
attract children through its children and you will not 
have to prescribe its reading. Let the Bible stand in 
the child's mind as a privilege, not a compulsion; 
and I beg of you not to require the memorizing of its 
difficult passages as a penalty, according to an old 
custom. Even children of older growth do not love 
their punishments. It is a sad comment upon our 
inability to tell Bible stories and our lack of biographical 
study in the Sunday-school that very few of the children 
we know between eleven and thirteen years of age will 
select bibHcal characters as their ideals. 

The Bible is the youth's book. For in it are youths, The Youth's 
and aspirations after ideals, and friendships, and hero- 
ism, and doubt, and love. In the Bible are aspirations 
after ideals ; here are Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, 
Jesus, Paul, and John, names belonging on any Hst of 
the world's ideahsts. In it are friendships, wonderful 
friendships, such as Enoch and Jehovah, David and 
Jonathan, Jesus and John, Paul and Timothy, Christ 
and the church ; here, also, are Ruth and Naomi. In it 
are heroes, typical heroes of various kinds, Hke Moses, 
Samson, Daniel, and Jesus ; and heroines, like Esther, 
and Lydia, and the beautiful young mother of Jesus. 
In it, too, are doubters, grave doubters, like Job, Ec- 
clesiastes, and Thomas. Doubt is natural to thinking 
youths. They must experience the truths of the great 
world of religion for themselves. The accumulated 
experience of the race in the forms of faith and doc- 

2E 



41 8 The Psychological Principles of Education 

trines they cannot entirely assimilate and some of it is 
cast off. The doubter is not to be told to quit doubt- 
ing. He is to be told to go on thinking, to be patient 
with himself, and especially to get acquainted with 
Job, the Preacher, and the doubting disciple. And, 
above all, the doubter must catch the biblical spirit of 
work, of learning the doctrine through doing the will. 
Self-forgetful work is the sunburst that scatters the 
mists of doubt. The Bible is the book for youth, too, 
because it is the book of love. The grand central 
theme is love, love of God for man, love of man for 
God and men. From Eden to Noah, to Moses, to 
Hosea, to Jesus, to John, it is all God saving the world 
by love, by a love that never fails, by a love that grieves 
when man hates, by an unangered love that suffers 
when man sins, by a free love that forgives when man 
repents, by a love that saves when man loves, — the 
Bible is the book of love. Jesus is the highest type of 
hero who overcomes the world through a suffering love. 
The Bible is the youth's own book, for in it, in short, is 
that self-revelation which all adolescence seeks. 
The Man's The Bible is the man's book. For in it are noble 
men and women who in the burden and heat of the 
day brought things to pass, who were the agents in 
the never ending creation of a new order. Here are 
the patriarchs, the judges, the kings, the prophets, the 
Saviour, the apostles, and a great multitude of men and 
women, all of whom the vision of youth attended 
on the dusty highways of mature labor and service. 
The Bible is the book of the burden-bearer for the 
burden-bearer. It calls mature men and women 



The Text-Book of Religious Education 419 

to work to-day in the name of the world's great 
workers. 

And for the years as they bring the philosophic mind 
and the natural cessation from the day's work, here is 
the wisdom of Solomon, the systematic thought of 
Paul, and the truth as it is in Jesus. For the descent 
of life there are also companions to be found in the 
figure of the aged Jacob blessing his sons, of the old 
hero Moses with undimmed eyes set toward the prom- 
ised land, and of stalwart young Timothy's grand- 
mother, Lois. And there is the comfort of Christ. 

From childhood to childhood again the blessings of the 
Book are over all. The twenty-third Psalm is for chil- 
dren who have seen a shepherd tending his sheep and 
for the aged who are passing through the valley of deep 
darkness. The meaning of the great passages grows 
as we grow, and their deepest meaning is still beyond 
us. No man to-day has grown into the reaHzation of 
sonship with the Father which Jesus had, or even into 
the fellowship with Jesus which Paul had. There is 
thus something in the Bible for all ; you, whoever you 
be, are in its pages ; to each reader it may become thus 
a personal book. In adjusting it to the needs of those 
whose reHgious nature is being developed, the prob- 
lem is essentially one of selection. The philosopher 
Paulsen has expressed what the learned scholars as 
well as the common people feel when he writes, "Who- 
ever appreciates simplicity and truth, grandeur and 
sublimity, must surely find pleasure and consolation in 
the Sacred Scriptures." * Those unique appeals the 

^ Paulsen, "Introduction to Philosophy," p. 335, Thilly Tr. 



420 The Psychological Principles of Education 

Bible makes to each stage in religious development are, 
then, the sources of our special interest in the Bible. 



The Bible as 
*' a Pedagog- 
ical Master- 
piece." 



Growth. 



From these considerations we are led naturally to the 
last, viz. the characteristics of the Bible as ^'a peda- 
gogical masterpiece," as President Hall calls it. From 
the many characteristics that might be enumerated to 
justify the description, let us select to consider only the 
following four ; its principle of growth, its vitality, its 
racial quality, its spirit. 

The Bible contains the principle of growth. This 
is the reason it can provide for the growth of man from 
childhood to age, as just seen. The Bible grows with 
the child as he grows. This principle receives distinct 
expression in Jesus, who likens the kingdom to hidden 
leaven, and looks first for the blade, then the ear, then 
the full corn in the ear. The truth it contains is un- 
folded as a growing revelation. And in the main the 
books as they are arranged stand in correct pedagogical 
order, the earlier parts of the Old Testament for the 
child, the prophecies and the gospels for youth, and the 
epistles of Paul for maturity. Perhaps the only con- 
siderable change needed would be to carry forward 
the wisdom hterature of the Old Testament to stand 
with Paul's letters. After what has already been said 
it will not be necessary to name the characteristics of 
each part of the Bible thus divided that adapt it to its 
special use. It is sufficient only to recognize that in 
keeping with all the demands of modern pedagogy for 
development, the Bible incorporates the principle of 
growth. It is not necessary to raise the question whether 



The Text-Book of Religious Education 421 

iwe can outgrow the Bible. The question will not be 
pertinent until the highest biblical standards prevail. 
Though we affirm the principle of a growing and con- 
tinuous revelation through all the ages down to the 
present, we still confess that the spiritual truths in 
the Bible that humanity at large has not yet seen are 
perhaps greater than those it knows, for we are not yet 
spiritually grown, and Jesus is still a partial enigma 
to us. 

A second pedagogical characteristic of the Bible is its Vitality. 
vitaHty. Its subject is religion, and it has the vital 
touch at every point. Here is reality in the religious 
life. The Bible reports religious Hfe in the act; it is 
not about rehgion, like theology ; it is religion express- 
ing itself. The Bible differs from theology as the 
stories of Uncle Remus differ from scientific folk-lore. 
Compare the Psalms, for example, with any of S chaff ^s 
" creeds of Christendom" ; they pulsate with fervent life, 
these are dry bones. Theologies and philosophies of 
rehgion are necessary for all thinking minds, but they 
cannot be found in the Bible. The authors of its 
books had an experience of God which our record 
expresses; they were not interpreting the religious ex- 
perience of others, they were expressing with the 
authority of personal experience what they had them- 
selves felt. They summon us primarily to join them, 
and only secondarily, if at all, to explain them. The 
carrying power of the biblical compositions is due to the 
expression through them of the personality of their 
authors. The teacher of the Bible needs primarily, not 
learning and scholarship, though these are great aids, 



422 The Psychological Principles of Education 

but the sense of appreciation of the animating spirit of 
the author studied or incident recorded, together with 
aptness at communicating it. 

Racial. Again, the Bible is a racial product. Modem peda- 

gogy is saying it takes a race to educate a child. The 
Bible is a race in religion expressing its development. 
A child nourished on this racial product becomes a 
partaker of a racial religious life. He is truly educated 
in religion. The Bible was not made by a pedagogical 
expert for teaching purposes ; it grew ; therefore it is a 
pedagogical masterpiece. The Bible speaks on re- 
ligion with ages of truth-seeking behind it. Centuries 
of struggle after God are here uttering their secrets. 
The religion of that individual race most gifted among 
the races of the world in the genius for religion became 
in Jesus and Paul universal in its outlook and sweep. 
To follow this development in one's own personal 
experience is to come into completest unity with the 
life of God and man. "We have, in fact, only begun 
to guess the possible value of the Bible as an instrument 
of religious education." ^ 

Spiritual. And lastly, in a truer sense than any theory of literal 

or verbal inspiration has ever held, the Bible is the work 
of the spirit of God in the soul of man. Here are the 
men who have both heard and hearkened to the divine 
voice, who have both felt and followed the drawing of 
the Father. Not in an external and mechanical, but 
in an internal and real sense. Scripture is given by in- 
spiration of God. The behef in the omnipresence of 
God demands that He be found in the thoughts, feel- 

^ Coe, " Education in Religion and Morals," p. 393. 



The Text-Book of Religious Education 423 

ings, and deeds of true men. In proportion to their 
insight, they express His nature truly. Inspiration is 
i not dictation, nor guidance of the pen; it is man's 
experience of God narrating itself. Its quality varies 
with the individuality of the writer or speaker. The 
words of Jesus give us our deepest insight into the 
character of God ; their inspirational quality is supreme. 
The imprecatory Psalms Christ did not quote; few 
Christians would care to pray them ; their inspirational 
quality is slight. The law of retaliation in the Levitical 
legislation Jesus did quote, only expressly to set it 
aside in favor of the attitude of love toward enemies. 
Thus is illustrated how the spirit of God, working in 
the hearts of all men, is hmited in its work by the in- 
ability of each man. It is not necessary at this point, 
though it would be interesting, to compare the inspira- 
tional quality of the Bible as a whole with that of other 
sacred literature. Sufficient has been said to indicate 
the fact and the nature of the fact that our Scriptures 
are the work of the Divine Pedagogos, as Clement of 
Alexandria used to call the Holy Spirit. This Spirit 
is able to lead to the true teacher of us all, God, the 
little children and youth and men and women who take 
it confidingly by the hand. 

Thus we have noted the developmental, vital, racial, '^^^ 
and spiritual qualities that characterize the Bible as 
our supreme curriculum in religious education. Some- 
thing has been intimated of its undiscovered resources 
and its unapplied material. We need not be afraid of 
modem critical scholarship. We may expect most of 



424 The Psychological Principles of Education 

our ideas about the Bible to change, for we are very 
ignorant concerning it. What will not change is the 
sense of the presence of God in human experience to 
which it witnesses, and which, after all, is the essential 
thing. Rather when the negative trend of the higher 
criticism is spent, that is, when our grosser ignorance 
is removed and when the positive fruits of the 
movement begin to appear, as appearing they already 
are to some extent, we shall find that the Bible has suf- 
fered nothing from the hands of literary and historical 
science ; rather that the more we know of its origin, 
preservation, literary form, and significance to its own 
authors, the greater and the deeper becomes its spiritual 
effect. For example, Jacob and Esau are greater as 
Israel and Edom than as individuals, as a society is 
larger than one of its members. When the Bible is 
thus through modern study fully recovered to us, when 
a large body of intelligent and devoted teachers carry 
to the rising generation the real old Bible, that is, the 
Bible as it was to its own people, will not its teaching 
give us in time the greater education and the greater 
man? 

So at least thinks President Hall, with whose sug- 
gestive outlook we seem to catch glimpses of the future. 
*'It is . . . our great good fortune," he says, *'to live 
in an age when our Bible is being slowly revealed as 
the best utterance and reflex of the nature and needs 
of the soul of man, as his great text-book in psychology, 
dealing with him as a whole, body, mind, heart, and will, 
and all in the largest and deepest relation to nature and 
to his fellow-man, which has been so misunderstood 



The Text-Book of Religious Education 425 

simply because it was so deeply divine. Now that its 
study is not confined to the Sunday-school and pulpit, 
but archaeology, philosophy, comparative religion, criti- 
cism, and anthropology have shown it, part by part, 
myth, history, prophecy, song, and, above all, Chris- 
tology, which is the heart of all, in a new and majestic 
light, there is a new hope that when all these studies 
have done their work and their results are duly certi- 
fied and organized, we shall at last be able to minister 
to the religious needs of academic adolescence in a 
way that opens the door to a higher type of education 
and of man." * 

Herewith our investigation of religious education General 

• 1.1A . Status of 

must conclude, it is a vast topic, to which American Religious 
educators are beginning to awaken. The territory is ^^^^^*^°'^- 
mostly virgin, the ground is hardly broken, few divisions 
have been staked out, and only a guide-book or two 
have appeared. Many scattering papers exist, few 
monographs, very few volumes. Every modern science, 
especially psychology, has a great deal that ought to 
be said upon it. In America we may confidently ex- 
pect a growing appreciation of the unity of religious and 
general education, and a quickened endeavor to meet 
educationally, as otherwise, existing religious need. 

The precedinsf discussions may have led us to feel Summary of 

Religious 

that our world is such that God may be met anywhere. Education. 
Among the reputed sayings of Jesus are, "Lift the 
stone, and there am I ; cleave the wood, and there shalt 
thou find me." ''Hast thou seen thy brother? Then 
^ G. S. Hall, ''Adolescence, " Vol. II, p. 321. 



426 The Psychological Principles of Education 

hast thou seen God." Companionship with God is an 
omnipresent privilege. This companionship should 
begin in childhood, grov/ in youth, and continue through 
manhood. It should consciously begin in the home, be 
unconsciously felt in the school, and come to fruition in 
the church. Apart from truly religious souls, the 
greatest guide into the fulness of such companionship 
is the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. And the 
purpose of all religious education is not to take men up 
from earth to heaven, but to bring down heaven to men 
upon earth, not to fit us for eternal life not yet begun, 
but to make us reahze the eternity of the present life. 
Life can never be other than now. We cannot fly away 
to God, we cannot fly away from God. 

Summary Herewith our whole investigation, already too long I 

Principles of fear, into the principles of education must end. We 
Education. Y^Q^^Q found that, though mostly guesswork to-day, the 
educating of man has in it the potentiality of scientific, 
though general and inexact, procedure. Unless the 
preceding pages have shown this, more words were 
futile now. Ideal education must be physical, intel- 
lectual, emotional, moral, and religious. Physical edu- 
cation, the groundwork of all, we did not consider, for 
reasons indicated at the outset. Intellectual education 
develops man's capacity to know the truth, that he should 
pursue it. Emotional education develops man's capacity 
to feel the beautiful, that he should love it. Moral edu- 
cation develops man's capacity to will the good, that 
he should desire it. Religious education develops man's 
capacity to sense the divine, that he should rest in it. 



The Text-Book of Religious Education 427 

And the aim of it all is not to fit us for future complete 
Hving, but to make us Hve completely now. The per- 
fect life is not something that awaits us of a sudden, 
it is something to win increasingly as the moments pass. 
This perfect Hfe has value in itself; it includes the 
ideals of health, truth, beauty, goodness, and God, 
these five, and the last all in all. The practice of the 
principles of education wins for us the promise of the 
Gospel, ''Ye shall be perfect.'^ 

Problems for Further Study 

1. Historical and Literary Criticism of the Bible. 

2. The Curriculum of Religious Education. 

3. The Value of the Old Testament for Religious Education. 

4. The Inspiration of the Scriptures. 

References on the Bible and Religious Education 

Coe, Education in Rehgion and Morals, pp. 391-393. 

Curtis, The Old Testament in Religious Education, Biblical 
World, December, 1903. 

Fitch, Educational Aims and Methods, Section I. 

King, The Bible as an Aid to Self -Disco very, Proc. R. E. A., 
1905, pp. 25-28. 

McFadyen, Baldwin, Dawson, Faunce, The Bible in Educa- 
tion, Proc. R. E. A., 1904, pp. 55-81. 

McKelway, The Opportunity of the Daily Press to apply Bib- 
heal Principles to Modern Social Problems, Proc. R. E. A., 
1904, pp. 413-435- 

Meeser, The Educational Use of the Bible by the Pastor, Proc. 
R. E. A., 1904, pp. 180-187. 

Rhees and Willett, ReKgious Education as affected by the His- 
torical Study of the Bible, Proc. R. E. A., 1903, pp. 80-91. 



INDEX 



(The numbers refer to the pages.) 



Adams, 96, 106, 329, 

Adler, F., 265. 

.Esthetic Education, Ch. XX. 

its nature, 239-240. 

its neglect, 240-242. 

history of, 242-243. 

importance of, 243-247. 

problem of, 247-248. 

how to cultivate the sense of 
beauty, 248-254. 
Aiken, 138, 329. 
Angell, 176, 203, 226, 263, 264, 269, 

277, 305- 
Apperception, Ch. IX. 

nature of, 1 08-1 10. 

results of, iio-iii. 

conditions of, 111-112. 

use of, in teaching, 11 2-1 16. 
Arnold, 396. 

Arts, analogy of, 5-6, 12. 
Attendance, in school, 38. 
Attention, Ch. XXVIII. 

natiu-e of, 314. 

hindrances to, 314-316. 

kinds of, 316-317. 

helps to, 317-320, 324-328. 



Bacon, 303. 

Bain, 15, 16, 22, 65, 79, 96, 118, 
130, 138, 158, 159, 162, 164, 
313, 2j8, 219, 226," 254, 264. 



Baker, 79, 305. 

Baldwin, 106, 138, 164, 189, 200, 
207, 264, 269, 277, 278, 283, 

325, 329- 
Barnes, 364. 
Barnett, 54, 265. 
Behrends, 390. 
BeU, 396. 
Bible, Ch. XXXIV. 

use of, in public school, 390-396. 
sources of general interest in, 

412-414. 
characteristics of, as literature, 

414-416. 
sources of special interest in, 

416-420. 
" a pedagogical masterpiece," 

420-423. 
its futiure use, 423-425. 
Bieroliet, 127. 
Bishop, 396. 
Boone, 22, 65. 
Bourne, 30. 
Briggs, 381, 410. 
Burrage and Bailey, 254. 
Burton, 410. 
Butler, 347. 



Calderwood, 305. 

Calkins, 154, 207, 219, 226, 283, 

329- 
Carr and Thurber, 396. 



429 



430 



Index 



Character, 36, 53. 

Citizenship, 36. 

Coe, 41, 347, 348, 349, 364, 367, 

381, 396, 410, 427. 
Coleridge, 126, 
Collar and Crook, 381. 
Comenius, 87, 89. 
Compayre, 96, 122, 138, 154, 176, 

189, 213, 265. 
Conception, Ch. XII. 

nature of, 1 55-1 57- 

extent of, 157. 

why stimulate? 157-159. 

how stimulate? 159-164. 
Cooley, 392, 312. 
Coulter, 348. 
Cramer, 189, 296. 
Creighton, 176, 189. 
Culture, 34. 
Curriculum, 32, 38, 57. 
Curtis, 427. 

D 

D'Alembert, 142. 

Davenport, 359, 364. 

Davidson, 30, 242, 427. 

Dawson, 427. 

Deduction, a method of educational 

science, 17-20. 
De Garmo, 66, 107, 116, 164, 265. 
Deliberating and Choosing, Ch. 
XXVII. 
importance of, 306. 
nature of, 307-308. 
the teacher's assistance in, 308- 
312. 
Development, 35. 
Dewey, 65, 116, 164, 207, 320. 
Dexter and Garlick, 96, 106, 116, 
138, 154, 176, 189, 213, 226, 
238, 255. 
Dill, 292. 
Dilthey, 8, 22. 



Discipline, Theory of Formal, Ch. 
VI. 
an educational ideal, 34. 
Doane, 410. 
Dutton, 265, 381, 410. 

E 

East, lesson of the, 25-26. 
Education, the Science of, Part I. 

Intellectual, Part II. 

Emotional, Part III. 

Moral, Part IV. 

Rehgious, Part V. 

Concept of a Science of, Ch. I. 

primarily an art, 5-6. 

a descriptive science of, 6-7. 

the normative science of, 7-16. 

the methods of educational 
science, 16-21. 

purpose of the history of, 23. 

utility of the history of, 24. 

Problem of, Ch. III. 

presuppositions of, 31-33. 

educational environment, 32. 

different ideals of, 33-37. 

Contribution of Psychology to a 
Science of, Ch. V. 

See "^Esthetic" and "Religious." 
Efficiency, 34. 

Eliot, C. W., 198, 213, 250, 311, 410. 
Eliot, S. A., 188. 
Emerson, 109. 

Emotions, Controlling the Coarser, 
Ch. XVIII. 

theory of the, 220-221. 

the James-Lange theory of, 
221-224. 

how to control the coarser, 224- 
226. 
Everett, C. C, 176, 197. 



Faunce, 427. 

Feelings, Description of, Ch. XV. 



Index 



431 



Feelings, primacy of, 195. 
importance of, 195-199. 
nature of, 199-201. 
kinds of, 201-203. 
growth of, 204-206. 
Principles of Educating the, Ch. 

XVI. 
Developing the Altruistic, Ch. 

XIX. 
are all men self-centred? 229- 

234. 
how to develop the altruistic, 
234-238. 
Findlay, 22. 
Fiske, 223. 

Fitch, 54, 189, 265, 329, 410, 427. 
Formal DiscipHne, the Theory of, 

Ch. VI. 
Fothergill, 264, 265. 
Froebel, 116. 



God, conception of, 339-340. 
Goethe, 109. 
Granville, M., 124. 
Griggs, E. H., 229, 238, 283, 305, 
312, 364, 381. 

H 
Habit, Ch. XXVI. 

universality of, 292-294. 

nature of, 294-295. 

explanation of, 295-298. 

sinister side of, 298-300. 

how to make or break, 300-302. 

educational conclusions,302-3o5. 
Hadley, 41. 

Hall, G. S., 60, 357, 364, 381. 
Hanus, 17, 79, 381. 
Harris, W. T., 22, 30, 57, 116, 117, 
138, 164, 213, 265, 364, 396. 
Haslett, 344, 410. 



Hegel, 27, 30. 

Henderson, 41, 381. 

Herbart, 65, 247. 

Hervey, 396. 

Hinsdale, 22, 30, 54, 79. 

History of Education, Ch. II. 

Hoffding, 105. 

Holman, 214. 

Home, see "Religious Education." 

Hughes, 41, 329. 

Hypnotism, and education, 290-291. 



Ideals, educational and national, 25. 

educational, and history, 27-28. 

different, of education, 33-37. 

attainment of, in practice, 38. 
Imagination, Ch. XI. 

stages of development of, 142- 

143- 
types of, 144-146. 
use of types of, in educating, 

146-149. 
kinds of, 149-150. 
training the productive, 150- 

154. 
Imitation, Ch. XXIV. 
nature of, 278-279. 
the models children imitate, 

279-280. 
the influence of example, 280- 

282. 
the limitations of example, 282- 

283. 
Impulse, Ch. XXIII. 
nature of, 270-271. 
its educational principle, 271- 

272. 
the precipitate will, 272-275. 
the obstructed will, 275-277. 
Induction, 17. 

a Method of Reasoning, Ch. 

XIV. 



^ ^ t V <■ 



432 Index 



Instinct, Ch. XXII. 

nature of, 267-268. 

its educational principle, 268- 
269. 
Interest and effort, 320-324. 



James, 18, 65, 114, 116, 131, 138, 

189, 214, 219, 226, 232, 236, 

238, 264, 265, 269, 277, 292, 

297, 305. 312, 329, 358, 364. 

Jastrow, 60. 

Johnson, Dr., on memory, 127. 
Johonnot, 214, 255, 265. 
Jowett, 135. 
Judd, 283. 

Judgment, Ch. XIII. 
nature of, 165-167. 
causes of false, 1 67-1 71. 
advantages of a trained, 171- 

172. 
suggestions for practising the, 
172-175. 

K 

Kant, 88, 165. 
Kay, 138. 

King, H. C, 410, 427. 
Kirkpatrick, 154, 163, 269. 
Knowledge, an ideal of education, 
34- 

of the subject taught, 43-47. 

of the pupil, 47-49. 
Knowlson, 176, 265. 
Kiilpe, 265. 



Ladd, 190, 207, 265. 
Lamprecht, 30. 
Landon, 190, 214. 
Landrith, 381. 
Lange, 108, 116. 
Laughlin, 214. 



Laurie, 30, 65, 190 
Lazarus, 113. 
Le Conte, 319. 
Leuba, 364. 
Lewes, 269. 
Lewis, F. C 
LoweU, 103. 



ic 



79. 327- 



M 
MacCunn, 265, 278, 282, 283, 305, 

312, 364, 369. 381- 
McCosh, 154. 
McDowell, 348. 
McFadyen, 427. 
McGhee, 19. 
McKelway, 427. 
McLellan and Dewey, 61, 65, 

127. 
McMurry, 116. 
Mark, 28, 30, 381. 
Mason, 292. 
Mathews, 348, 410. 
Mayer, 223. 
Meeser, 427. 
Memory, Ch. X. 

importance of, 11 7-1 18. 

mnemonics, 1 19-122. 

how to improve, 122-127. 

forgetting, 128-129. 

"cramming," 132. 

note-books and, 133-135. 
Method, in teaching, 51-53. 

kinds of, 51-52. 

inductive and deductive, 181- 
185. 
Mnemonics, literature on, 139. 

See "Memory." 
Monroe, P., 28, 30, 41, 79, 397. 
Moral Education, Part IV. 
Morgan, L., 106, 138, 154, 214, 255, 

265, 269, 283, 305. 
Morgan, T. J., 92, 96, 106. 
Morris, 30. 



Index 



433 



Munroe, J. P., 30. 
Mxinsterberg, 30, 45, 59, 65, 250. 



N 



Necker, Mme., 141. 



Oppenheim, 154, 214, 269, 292, 

305, 364. 
O'Shea, 11, 20, 22, 77, 79, 116, 

396- 



Parsons, 410. 
Payne, 16, 22, 30, 54. 
Peabody, 364. 
Perception, Ch. VIII. 

kinds of, 97-98. 

significance of, 98-100. 

how to educate, 100-105. 
Plato, 43, 50, 134, 242-243, 253, 

327, 368. 
Pleasure, and Pain, Ch. XVII. 

nature of, 215-216. 

as moral consequences, 217- 
219. 
Porter, N., 122. 
Preyer, 96. 

Psychology, and a Science of Edu- 
cation, Ch. V. 

and knowledge of the teacher's 
field, 56-58. 

the power of its knowledge, 58- 
61. 

personal gains from it, 61-63. 

cautions concerning, 63-65. 
Puffer, E., 240, 255. 
Pupil, 31. 



Quackenbos, 290. 



Reason, XIV. 

induction and deduction, 177- 
181. 

bearing on teaching, 181-183. 

suggestions for teacher concern- 
ing, 183-187. 
Reeder, 348. 
Religion, and science, S3^- 

and art, 337. 

and morality, 339. 

nature of, 340-341. 
Religious Education, Part V. 

Principles of, Ch. XXIX. 

nature of, 343-345- 

in the Home, Ch. XXXI. 

in the PubKc School, Ch. XXXII. 

in the Church, Ch. XXXIII. 

the value of the home, 365-369. 

the dangers to the home, 369- 

373- 
as safeguard and remedy, 373- 

375- 
its forces in the home, 375-377. 
its content in the home, 377- 

378. 
its method in the home, 378- 

380. 
its aim in the home, 380-381. 
religious instruction in public 

school, 383-390. 
the use of the Bible in the public 

school, 390-396. 
principle of, in church, 398- 

400. 
educational agencies of the 

church, 400-401. 
educational work of the minister, 

401-402. 
educational work of Sunday 

School, 402-408. 
educational work of mid-week 

meeting, 409-410. 



434 



Index 



Religious Nature, Development and 
Training of, Ch. XXX. 
why not religious laissez jaire? 

350-352. 
in childhood, 352-355. 
In youth, 355-364- 
Rhees, 427. 
Ribot, 207, 214, 255. 
Rooper, 116. 
Rosenkranz, 30, 65, 364. 
Rosmini, 106, 154. 
Rousseau, 88. 

Royce, 8, 22, 74, 102, 142, 154, 164, 
166, 176, 190, 196, 203, 207, 
210, 269, 283, 305, 329. 



Samson, 214, 240, 255. • 
Santayana, 214, 255. 
Schaeffer, 164, 176, 190, 265. 
Schiller, 214, 247, 255. 
Science, of Education, Part I. 

meaning of, 3-4. 

descriptive and normative, 4, 

methods of educational, 16-21. 

what a science of education most 
needs, 20-21. 
Search, 41, 277, 312. 
Sensation, Training the Senses, Ch. 
VII. 

why train the senses, 86-88. 

how? 88-94. 

mistakes in sense-training, 94- 

95- 
Sense-perception, 98-100. 
Sinclair, 22. 

Spencer, 65, 89, 96, 207, 265, 269. 
Stanley, 104-105, 106, 199, 207, 

214, 255. 
Starbuck, 348, 364, 396. 
Stead, 95. 
Stewart, 381. 
Stoll, 285, 288-290, 292. 



Stout, 116, 136-137, 138, 139, 207, 
219, 226, 265, 277, 283, 292, 

319- 
Stratton, 57, 283, 292. 
Suggestion, Ch. XXV. 
nature of, 284. 

place of, in educating, 285-286. 
the art of suggesting, 286-287. 
detrimental suggestions, 288- 

290. 
hypnotism and education, 290- 
291. 
Sully, J., 65, 88, 92, 96, 106, 139, 
154, 164, 176, 190, 214, 238, 
239, 265, 283. 
Sunday School, aim of, 403-404. 
needs of, 404-408. 
discipline in, 406-408. 

T 

Tarver, 54. 
Taylor, 164. 

Teacher, Essential Qualifications 
of, Ch. V. 

task of, 39-41. 

knowledge of his subject, 43-47. 

knowledge of his pupils, 47-49. 

ability to teach, 49-53. 

his character, 53. 

his attitude, 64. 
ThUly, 238. 

Thomas, 214, 219, 226, 238, 255. 
Thompson, 312. 

Thorndike, 14, 17, 22, 65, 70, 79, 
154, 226, 269, 277, 279, 283, 
286, 305, 329. 
Titchener, 207, 329. 
Tompkins, 103, 106, 164, 176, 364, 

396- 
Tucker, W. J., 41- 

V 
Van Dyke, H., 140, 154. 
Variations, individual, 57. 



Index 



435 



w 

Ware, 30. 

Watts, 95. 

Wells, D. C, 381. 

Welton, 164, 176, 187, 190. 

Wendell, 21, 321. 

West, lesson of the, 25-26. 

Will, Field of, Ch. XXI. 

function of, 261. 

importance of, 261-262. 

two conceptions of, 262-263. 

development of, 263-264. 

the precipitate, 272-275. 



Will, the obstructed, 275-277. 

Willett, 427. 

Wilson, 28. 

Winchester, 381. 

Witmer, 116. 

Wundt, 203, 269. 



Youmans, 79. 
Young, 22. 



Ziehen, 269. 



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